Mumbai: Corporate India seems to have dodged the widespread slowdown that is plaguing the entire world. Not just that. It is faring better than expectations, if tax collection figures are any indication.

According to reports and figures available from the revenue department, corporate tax collections have shown a growth of 2 per cent up to 17 September 2001 against the same period last year.

The buoyancy was evident in the period between 1 and 17 September 2001 when advance tax collection at Rs 6,400 crore was up by 82 per cent over the corresponding periods figure of Rs 3,500 crore.

Advance tax collections in the month of August took a massive beating when the total collection dropped about 50 per cent at Rs 2,688 crore in comparison to Rs 5,400 crore in the corresponding period.

In fact, advance tax collections have been registering a dropping trend this fiscal, but the first 17 days of September reversed the trend. In the first quarter ended June 2001, the total advance tax collection dropped 63 per cent in comparison to the same period in the previous year. As a result, the total revenue collection in the first quarter at Rs 32,418.89 crore was less by 12.89 per cent in comparison to the revenues collected in the corresponding period last year.

Encouraged by the reverse in trend, the government is now confident of exceeding the pre-set tax collection target of Rs 40,040 crore and the overall revenue target of Rs 2,31,745 crore for fiscal 2002.

Revenue Secretary S Narayan attributes the higher collections to the systemic changes made in the procedure for collecting advance tax. "If one were to take into account the additional refunds of Rs 4,000 crore effected during the year, then the gross collections were still higher."

The additional refunds had to be made due to the changes made in the last Budget. Accordingly, the income tax department now cannot adjust excess tax paid against the future demands, but is required to refund the same. As a result of these changes, the IT department has refunded about Rs 10,600 crore till now in comparison to the Rs 6,400 paid in the corresponding period last year.