The nation's tax revenue for fiscal 2003 is expected to top the government target of 41.786 trillion yen due to rising corporate profits and personal consumption, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry expects to log in May the remaining portion of corporate and consumption tax revenue for the year to March 31, making it "highly likely that overall tax revenue for fiscal 2003 will top the target," a ministry official said in releasing tax revenue data for April.

It would be the first time in three years that Japan's tax revenue exceeded initially budgeted projections, bolstering the view that its economy is on a solid recovery footing.

Although the reporting year has already ended, the tally of tax revenue for the year will not be finalized until companies pay corporate taxes in May. The May payments account for about 40 percent of corporate tax revenue and 20 percent of consumption tax revenue for the year.

In April alone, Japan's tax revenue increased 0.4 percent from a year earlier to 3.59 trillion yen, lifting cumulative tax revenue for fiscal 2003 to 36.28 trillion yen.

The cumulative figure shows that the Finance Ministry has collected 86.8 percent of the total budgeted target, faster than the average collection rate of 85.1 percent for the past five years, the official said.

Income tax revenues in April came to 1.98 trillion yen, down 3.2 percent from a year earlier, but sending cumulative income taxes for the year to 13.84 trillion yen, already 0.2 percent above the initially budgeted projection.

Corporate taxes totaled 437.08 billion yen, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier and driving the cumulative total to 5.75 trillion yen, or 63.1 percent of the initially budgeted projection of 9.11 trillion yen.

Consumption taxes came to 632.01 billion yen, up 2.9 percent from a year earlier.