ISLAMABAD, June 29: The Central Board of Revenue will collect around Rs3-4 billion as advance tax from major taxpayers to achieve the annual revenue target of Rs510 billion for the outgoing fiscal year (2003-04).
Sources at the CBR told Dawn on Tuesday that advance taxes would be mostly collected under the head of sales tax and to some extent under the income tax head from major taxpayers. According to the sources, the payment of refund/rebate to taxpayers was also likely to be withheld during June 2004.
They said that about Rs4 billion was collected last year from the major taxpayers, including PTCL, OGDCL, Wapda and SNGPL, as advance tax under the heads of sales tax and income tax, which was later adjusted against their tax liabilities during the year 2003-04.
According to the statistics, the collection under the head of sales tax remained short of the target by 29 per cent to Rs17.705 billion in May 2004 against the budgetary's target of Rs24.9 billion.
Due to this shortfall, the government has revised downward the sales tax annual target for the year 2003-04 from Rs223.1 billion to Rs218.4 billion. With this reduction, the tax authorities will now have to collect Rs27.683 billion in June 2004 against the last year's collection of Rs24.342 billion, showing an increase of 13.72 per cent.
Similarly, the government has also revised downward the target of central excise duty (CED) from Rs47.7 billion to Rs43.5 billion owing to a shortfall registered in the collection during the last few months. The CBR will now be collecting Rs3.87 billion in June 2004 against the last year's collection of Rs4.907 billion, a decrease of 21 per cent.
For achieving the annual target and adjusting the shortfall registered under the heads of sales tax and CED, the tax authorities have revised upward the target under customs duty from Rs78.1 billion to Rs86.6 billion, an increase of Rs8.5 billion. The CBR will now have to collect Rs9.775 billion in June 2004 under the head of customs duty.
The sources said the CBR had directed all the collectors of customs to clear all consignments lying at ports to raise maximum revenue. However, a minor upward revision was made in the collection of income tax by increasing the target from Rs161.1 billion to Rs161.5 billion for the year 2003-04.
With this, the tax authorities will have to collect Rs28.14 billion in June 2004 against the last year's collection of Rs28.11 billion with no tangible increase in collection this year.
