May 1, 2003	Thursday	Safar 28, 1424

ISLAMABAD, April 30: The tax authorities claim to have collected Rs348.4 billion during the July-April period of the current financial year by achieving the given target set for the same period this year.

Official provisional figures released by Central Board of Revenue (CBR) here on Saturday, showed that revenue collection registered an increase of 14 per cent during 10 months of the current fiscal year (July-April 2002-03) to Rs348.4 billion against Rs306.1 billion collected over the same period of last year.

On monthly basis, the tax authorities collected Rs38.1 billion during the month of April 2003 against Rs36.3 billion collected over the same month last year, showing an increase of 4.95 per cent.

CBR spokesman and member direct taxes, Vakil Ahmad Khan said that CBR expected to marginally exceed the revenue target for up to April this year.

He said that in the next 10 days, it was hoped that more revenue would be raised under the head of income tax and sales tax.

According to the statistics, the tax authorities have collected Rs14.7 billion under the head of sales tax during the July-April period of the current financial year against Rs17.4 billion target set for the same period this year, showing a decline of 15 per cent.

The revenue raised from customs duty registered an increase of 27 per cent during the same period under review to Rs7.5 billion this year against the target of Rs5.9bn set for the same period.

The revenue under the head of central excise duty declined by 4.87 per cent during the 10 months of the current financial year to Rs3.9 billion against the target of Rs4.1 billion set for the same period of last year.

The tax authorities collected Rs12 billion under the head of income tax during the same period this year.