* Economic growth boosts tax collections
* 2010 tax income expected to grow 12 percent
BRASILIA, March 18 (Reuters) - Brazil's tax revenue soared to a record for the month of February on the back of a fast-growing economy and will grow 12 percent this year, the government said on Thursday.
Tax income, adjusted for inflation, jumped to 53.5 billion reais ($29.8 billion) in February, an increase of 13.23 percent over February last year, data from Brazil's national tax authority showed.
In January, tax revenues had totaled 73.6 billion reais.
'The result is fundamentally due to a recovery of the main economic indicators, which influence tax revenue,' the tax authority said.
The economy is expected to grow by 5.5 percent this year, compared with a contraction of 0.2 percent last year.
As a result, the government expects total revenue to increase 12 percent in 2010 over last year.
'I believe this will be a good year and we'll be able to return to 2008 (revenue) levels,' Otacilio Cartaxo, head of the federal tax authority, told a news conference in Brasilia.
For the first two months, tax income reached 127 billion reais, an increase of 13.46 percent over the same period last year.
Brazil's fiscal finances deteriorated in 2009 as the tail end of a recession forced the government to cut levies for key industries, squeezing government revenues. ($1=1.793 reais) (Reporting by Isabel Versiani; Writing by Raymond Colitt; Editing by James Dalgleish)
