The government is unlikely to attain its tax revenue target of 49.63 trillion yen for fiscal 2001, due in part to falling corporate tax receipts, the Finance Ministry said Monday.

Announcing tax data for April, a senior ministry official said a tax shortfall in the fiscal year that ended March 31 is now "unavoidable."

Tax revenues for April dropped 6.6 percent from a year earlier to 3.827 trillion yen -- the eighth straight month of decline -- bringing total tax revenues so far to 41.621 trillion yen, down 3.1 percent from the year before.