Revenue collections registered a 44% growth for the corporate direct tax year on year in December 2009. The Period of April-December 09 recorded a growth of 14% making government officials optimistic about surpassing the target of Rs 3.7 lakh crore for the year.

Outlining the reasons for the strong growth a Finance Ministry official said the adverse impact of global financial meltdown had caused a decline in base effect in December 2008.

An official release on Tuesday showed a 24 per cent increase to Rs 66,410 crore in Net direct tax collections for December over the Rs 53,347 crore collected in the same month last year. On the back of a revival in the industrial sector the first three quarters of this Fiscal year registered a 8.51 per cent growth to Rs 2,50,232 crore for Centre's net direct tax and corporate tax collections grew 13.47 per cent to Rs 1,66,503 crore.

Personal Income Tax however declined 19.75 per cent in the month to Rs 13,117 crore as against Rs 16,345 crore in the same period last year. The PIT, which includes securities transaction tax, fringe benefit tax and banking cash transaction tax declined 0.4% to Rs
83,178 crore from Previous year's Rs 83,524 crore in the first nine months.

The government raised estimate for this fiscal from the Rs 4 lakh crore but it was rolled back because of 3%-4% average growth till November. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is now expecting Rs 25,000 crore from scrutiny cases from additional demands after re-verification of returns.

The high projected profitability has also resulted in a rise of 42.6% for corporate advance tax in the third quarter. High profits are expected from the sectors such as banking, telecom, power, information technology (IT), auto, oil and consumer goods.