Mumbai: Buoyed by a robust 60 per cent growth in income tax collection in Mumbai, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said that he expected the financial capital to register an even higher tax collection in the next financial year.

"Income tax collection is doing better than the budget estimates. Mumbai has shown a growth of over 60 per cent in tax collection this year. I hope Mumbai will do even better (next fiscal)," Chidambaram said after inaugurating the Large Tax Payer Unit (LTU) here.

According to a Mumbai Income Tax official, the tax collection till date stands at Rs 1,10,000 crore as against Rs 67,000 crore during the same period last year.

"Based on this growth percentage, we expect a total tax collection of Rs 1,45,000-crore the next fiscal or a contribution of 40 per cent in direct tax collection," the official said.

Chidambaram expressed the confidence that direct tax collection during the current financial year would even surpass the revised estimates of Rs 3,04,445-crore, by a few thousand crore.

"Tax revenues have shown an over 40 per cent higher collection during the current financial year, following tax compliance. The target for the financial year 2008-09 has been fixed at Rs 3,65,000-crore or Rs 1,000-crore per day," Chidambaram said.
Source : PTI