Centre's direct tax kitty dips by 40%

Centre's direct tax kitty dips by nearly 40% in November, 2008 at Rs 10,346 crore from Rs 17,189 crore a year ago. However, Finance Ministry officials attributed the decline in direct tax collections to change in last date of filing of corporate returns this time. "The reduced collections in November this year is due to the different dates of filing of corporate returns which was on October 31 last year, while it was in September this year," said an official. After recording a robust growth for the first six months, direct tax collections had showed just 10.66% growth in October year-on-year.