July 10, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 9,1424

ISLAMABAD, July 9: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz will preside over a meeting of tax officials on Thursday to review performance of revenue collection during the fiscal 2002-03 and suggest measures for bringing more taxpayers under the tax net.

Informed sources told Dawn on Wednesday the finance minister would also discuss the milestones to be achieved in the restructuring of tax administration during the current financial year.

The finance minister will be briefed on the tax measures to be taken during the current financial year for materializing the projected tax collection target of Rs510 billion.

According to the sources, the minister would also discuss with the tax officials the shortfall registered in two main taxes — sales tax and central excise duty (CED) — during the financial year 2002-03.

The tax officials collected Rs194.1 billion under the head of sales tax against the downward revised target of Rs197 billion, registering a shortfall of around Rs3 billion.

Similarly, the revenue collection raised from the CED was also stood at Rs45.1 billion during the fiscal 2002-03 against the revised target of Rs46.5 billion, indicating a decrease of Rs1.4 billion.

The sources said during the meeting the issue of sales tax refunds and rebate would also come under discussion.

The finance minister would be informed that due to reduction in rebate rates in the last year budget, around Rs20 billion was saved for the national exchequer this year.

Due to this major share of lesser payment of rebate to exporters the collection under the head of customs rose to more than 50 per cent this year, as the dutiable imports this year rose only by two per cent over the corresponding year.