ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: The tax authorities have yet to take concrete measures to arrest the decline in the revenue income under the head of central excise duty (CED) during the first four months of the current financial year.

Provisional figures released by the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) here on Monday showed that the CED collection declined by 7 per cent during the period under review over the same period last year.

Similarly, the sales tax collection registered growth of just one per cent in the July-October period of the current financial year over the same period last year.

The sales tax collection registered a constant negative growth during the first three months of the current financial year over the same period of last year.

It was only the customs duty collection, which registered a growth of 36 per cent and income tax revenue increased by 8 per cent during the period under review over the same period last year.

Further analysis showed that the tax authorities collected Rs12.3 billion under the head of central excise duty (CED) during the July-October period this year against Rs13.034 billion of last year, showing a decline of 5.63 per cent.

The tax authorities collected Rs59.6 billion under the head of sales tax during the first four months of the current financial year against Rs58.772 billion during the same period last year showing an increase of 1.4 per cent.

The tax authorities collected Rs37.75 billion under the head of direct taxes in July-October this year against Rs35.104 billion of last year, showing a growth of 7.53 per cent.

CBR collected Rs24.607 billion under the head of customs during the July-Oct period of current financial year against Rs18.04 billion over the corresponding period of last year, showing an increase of 36 per cent.

The tax authorities have claimed that they collected Rs134.2 billion during the July-October period of the current financial year against Rs124.956 billion collected during the same period last year, showing an increase of 7.23 per cent.