October this year, as always, fell in the festival season but that did not manifest in high tax numbers, particularly direct taxes.

For instance, corporation-tax was down 16 per cent at Rs 26,356 crore in the month year-on-year (Y-o-Y), while personal income tax fell 12 per cent at Rs 61,937 crore.

This resulted in a decline of 11.9 per cent at Rs 88,293 crore in direct taxes in the month.

As such, corporation-tax collection rose by just 1.2 per cent till October this financial year while the Budget has projected this tax to rise almost 12 per cent during FY25.

Personal income tax was up 16.8 per cent during the first seven months of FY25, which is much higher than the 13.6 per cent projected by the Budget for the year, show figures released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

Direct taxes rose 11.1 per cent at slightly over Rs 11 trillion during April-October on a yearly basis while the Budget has projected them to rise 12.8 per cent.