ATLANTA — Gov. Sonny Perdue announced Tuesday that net revenue collections for the month of March 2010 (FY 2010) totaled $998,239,000 compared to $987,986,000 for March 2009 (FY09), an increase of $10,523,000 or 1.0 percent. This is the first monthly increase in revenues since November 2008.

“While we are always cautious about reading too much into a single month’s revenue report, the March numbers are certainly encouraging,” Gov. Perdue said. “Springtime in Georgia always brings us the Masters and the Braves’ opening day, and I am hopeful we are also seeing the first buds of economic recovery.”

Gross tax collections were up $141 million last month, an increase of 7.9 percent. Most of the gross increase for March was returned to taxpayers in refund checks and to local jurisdictions through sales tax distributions. The Department of Revenue processed 783,276 tax returns in March, an additional 132,000 compared to March 2009. This amounted to an additional $90.1 million in refund payments versus last March.

The Department has processed 2.03 million tax refunds since January, 214,000 more than last year totaling an additional $156 million in refunds returned to taxpayers.

Gross sales tax collections reported an increase of $7 million or 1.0 percent, up from $717 million in March 2009 to $724 million in March 2010. Corporate income tax experienced a net increase of $12 million or 9.8 percent in March 2010 compared to March 2009.

The percentage decrease year-to-date for FY10 compared to FY09 is 11.5 percent.