Ace Bollywood stars seem to have crushed the economic slump in order to register handsome growth in their advance tax payments.

The latest list not only showed the top ten Bollywood earners pay 17.7% more in taxes as against the last year’s figures, but the industry has thrown up a new ‘Hero No 1′.

Multi-talented actor Akshay Kumar has topped the list of income tax payers in the Bollywood industry.

Akki, who has pushed King Khan to the No. 2 position, paid a whopping Rs 31 crore in taxes, and become the highest taxpayer of 2008-09 in the film industry.

On the other hand, Shahrukh Khan has paid around Rs 30.99 crore in income tax.

The top ten Bollywood biggies collectively paid Rs 107 crore as taxes whereas the same set had paid Rs 90.90 crore in 2007-08 when the economic system was flourishing.

On the celebrity tax payer list, the third position goes to Salman Khan with a payment of Rs 14 crore, while Saif Ali Khan was on fourth place, who paid Rs 8.6 crore as income tax.

More surprisingly, veteran star Rajesh Khanna remains to be among Bollywood’s highest tax payers, stood at No 5 rank after paying Rs 6.87 crore, ahead of Amitabh Bachchan (Rs 1.25 crore), who slipped to the 10th place from No 7 during the last year.

Last year, Rajesh Khanna had paid Rs 11.90 crore, the third highest after his son-in-law Akki, who was on second position after King King, who topped the list after paying Rs 31.50 crore as income tax.

The details of Khanna’s business operations were unavailable at the moment.

Saif’s girlfriend Kareena was placed at No 7 with a deposit of Rs 3.7 crore in the tax kitty.

At No 7 this year was Saif’s girlfriend Kareena, who paid Rs 3.7 crore to the IT department. Singer-actor Himesh Reshammiya was placed at No 9 with a deposit of Rs 3 crore in the tax kitty.

Notable among those missing from the top 10 list is Sallu’s current flame and industry favourite Katrina Kaif.

In contrast, Ash improved her ranking from No 9 last year to No 6.