The Centre’s direct tax mop-up increased by over 15% to Rs 68,675 crore during the first quarter of this financial year, riding on high corporate tax collections and a low tax base in the previous financial year.

Corporate tax collections, an indication of the performance of Indian corporates, soared 21.65% to Rs 43,439 crore during the April-June period, compared to the same period in the previous financial year, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement. However, personal income tax collections saw a marginal hike of only 1.24% and stood at Rs 24,075 crore during the April-June period— an indication that the income of individuals has not grown much.

The realisation from the securities transaction tax (STT) ?a tax on transactions at the bourses ? declined to Rs 1,094 crore, from Rs 1,462 crore in the first quarter of the previous fiscal.

Advance tax collections in the first quarter witnessed an increase of 31.4% since 2005 to Rs 26,876 crore, up from Rs 20,456 crore during the same period last fiscal. Advance tax collections from the top 100 companies grew 18% in the first quarter. Thus, the growth in total advance tax collections indicates that smaller companies have also performed very well in the second quarter.

While advance tax collections dropped by 3.5% during 2008-09, an increase of 25.1 % was recorded in the previous fiscal. The increase in advance tax collections was 30 % in 2006-07 and 26.9 % in 2005-06.

The government expects to mop up Rs 4.3 lakh crore by way of direct taxes during the current fiscal, an increase of over 13% over the year-ago period.