LAHORE, May 17: The Excise and Taxation Department has collected Rs3.7 billion — or 81 per cent of the target of Rs4.5 billion for the fiscal 2001-02 — in the first 10 months (July-April) of the year, Punjab Minister Tariq Hamid told reporters on Friday.

Giving a break-up of the recovery, he said the department had recovered Rs388 million as provincial excise, Rs1.24 billion as motor vehicles tax, Rs175 million as professional tax and Rs1.35 billion as property tax. He said the collection of provincial excise stood at 97 per cent of the target, of motor vehicles tax at 90 per cent, of professional tax at 80 per cent and property tax at 68 per cent.

He hoped that the department would be able to achieve more than 100 per cent recovery by the end of the fiscal year “because recovery picks up speed in the last couple of months.”