Corporate India is not expecting to outscore its rate of growth in the last fiscal, as per the trend in tax receipts till the end of July in 2004-05.

Figures of net corporate tax receipts have fallen short of the budgeted rate of growth, logging a 23.1 per cent rise in the April-July period.

In absolute terms, it has risen to Rs 5,019 crore (Rs 50.19 billion) from Rs 4,077 crore (Rs 40.77 billion) in the same period of 2003-04. In the 2004-05 Budget, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has assumed a 40 per cent corporate tax growth rate.

In the last fiscal, corporate tax receipts had grown by over 25 per cent. However, the slower growth rate was partly compensated by the income-tax receipts growth.

Income-tax receipts have climbed to Rs 12,723 crore (Rs 127.23 billion) in the first four months of this fiscal against Rs 7,809 crore (Rs 78.09 billion) recorded in the same period in 2003-04, a rise of almost 63 per cent.

As a result, the direct tax mop-up for the first four months of the fiscal reached Rs 17,787 crore (Rs 177.87 billion), 49.78 per cent more than Rs 11,875 crore (Rs 118.75 billion) collected in April-July 2003-04.

The rise in income-tax collections is significant, since it has happened despite the postponement of the last date for self-assessment in the current fiscal.

While it is too early to say if the intensive refunds drive of the last fiscal has cleared the backlog of arrears with the Income-Tax department, the aggregate refunds at Rs 13,429 crore (Rs 134.29 billion) in this fiscal are Rs 1,279 crore (Rs 12.79 billion) less than in the same period of last fiscal.

Of the total refunds, Rs 10,820 crore (Rs 108.2 billion) was for corporate tax and Rs 2,580 crore (Rs 25.8 billion) for Income-Tax.

In terms of the Budget targets achievement, corporate tax has reached 5.7 per cent of the target, while Income-Tax has already touched a quarter of the target.