Indirect tax revenue collections for the current fiscal surpassed budgetary targets by 35 per cent  due to higher collections from comprising customs, excise and service tax. The finance ministry said in a statement the collection from April 2008 to end August 2008n reached Rs112, 643 crore.

Direct tax collections, including corporate and personal income tax, have grown by 46.95 per cent to Rs 71,648 crore in April-July this year.

In view of the excellent collection in direct taxes, the Finance Ministry has already revised its target of direct tax collections from Rs 3.65 lakh crore to about Rs four lakh crore.

Customs and excise duty collections grew by 10.5 per cent to Rs 93,856 crore by August-end, while service tax collections rose by 24.9 per cent at Rs 18,787 crore till July-end, against Rs 15,043 crore collected during the same period last year.

Customs duties collections grew by 17.8 per cent and stood at Rs 47,734 crore during first five months of this fiscal against Rs 40,505 crore collected a year ago.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram expressed concern about the sluggish growth in excise duty collections, which rose marginally by 3.7 per cent to Rs 46,122 crore, against Rs 44,469 crore during the same period a year earlier.

Indirect tax collection estimates for the budget 2008-09, are Rs 3,21,264 crore, which include Rs 1,18,930 crore from customs, Rs 1,37,874 crore from excise and Rs 64,460 crore from service tax.

However, in August, revenue collections from customs duty slowed down, growing at 8.9 per cent to Rs 9,484 crore, against Rs 8,713 crore a year ago.

Excise duty collections rose merely by 1.2 per cent in August touching Rs 19,013 crore, against Rs 9,898 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal.

In July, service tax collections grew at 9.4 per cent to Rs 3,876 crore against Rs 3,543 crore a year ago.