KARACHI, June 12: The Director General Large Taxpayers Unit, Karachi, Shahid Jamal said on Friday that the LTU would meet the revenue target because the collection of various taxes till May, had already exceeded last year's final collection.

Addressing a group of leading businessmen and industrialists of the city at the LTU conference room he expressed the hope that Rs29 billion income tax target would be met as the Unit had already collected Rs24 billion which was equal to last years final collection.

Similarly, Shahid Jamal said, sales tax collection till May stood at Rs27 billion, which was equal to last year's final collection and hoped that a target of Rs32 billion would also be met by the close of the fiscal. The Central Excise Duty collection stood at Rs4.5 billion till May, as against total collection of Rs4 billion last year.

On an average, he said there was a growth of 15 per cent in revenue collection this year which was quite encouraging. He informed the delegation members that the LTU collected 12.5 per cent of total national revenues and about 45 per cent of Karachi-based revenues.

The delegation was led by S M Muneer, vice-chairman, Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) and comprised Tariq Sayeed, Manzar Alam, Mian Zahid Hussain chairman Korangi Association of Trade and Industry, Anjum Ameen country head ABN Amro Bank and Zahid Haleem Sheikh of Shafi Tanneries.

The DG explained to the visitors that criteria of cases to be taken up by the LTU is that total turnover of a taxpayer should be Rs400 million or total tax paid Rs20 million. But some of the sector of the industry are being left out even if they meet this criteria, he added.

Shahid Jamal explained about the working of the LTU and facilities being provided to taxpayers at the Unit. He said most of the functions are automated and there was little inter-action between taxpayers and tax collectors.

He said LTU was free from age-old formula of achieving targets and this becomes even more redundant in the presence of Universal Self-Assessment Scheme (USAS) and voluntary payments in sales tax. The budget targets, he said were also based on estimates.

The DG admitted that some problems were being faced particularly on the audit side of income tax and sales tax, and the Unit had not reached a stage which could be said to be satisfactory.

What was needed, he said, was a change in attitude and mind set to come out of target-oriented culture. LTU does not allocate targets to its officers but seeks progress on individual case.

Despite the fact the LTU was not updated with refunds, it had cleared all refund claims pertaining to tax year 2003.

S M Muneer was highly critical about STARR programme being used by CBR for sales tax refunds and said some other system be introduced at the earliest as this was not working at all. However, generally the delegation was general appreciative of the working of the LTU.