New Delhi: The centre has said that revenue collections for fiscal 2003-04 have exceeded Budget estimates for the first time in a decade since 1995-96. The provisional figures for this fiscal, ending March 31, 2004, have put total collections at Rs 2,52,162 crore against the budget estimate of Rs 2,49,315 crore.

However against the revised estimates (RE) of Rs 2,52,900 crore, a minor shortfall of 0.4 per cent is registered. But the Government of India points out that the RE in turn had been fixed higher than the budget estimaies after a gap of nearly a decade.

The Finance Ministry has also pointed out that the tax-gross domestic product ratio at 9.1 per cent against 8.65 per cent in the previous fiscal too has shown a marginal improvement, going above 9 per cent for the first time in five years.

Direct tax collections at Rs 1,04,678 crore, against the RE of Rs 1,03,400 crore, were also 27 per cent higher than 2002-03. The ministry feels that the collections have been higher because of better tax compliance.

On the indirect tax front, collections have aggregated Rs 1,47,484 crore, which though marginally lower than the RE of Rs 1,49,500 crore, were still 12.3 per cent higher than the collections for 2002-03.

The GOI points out that despite the recent excise and customs duty reductions, indirect tax collections have been more than 98.6 per cent of the RE, saying that the shortfall has been less due to accelerated growth and better compliance.

The Finance Ministry has said that trends show that expenditure too was within the targeted levels and that they had every reason to believe that the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent would be met.