11 September 2004	Saturday	25 Rajab 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the tax authorities to collect additional Rs10 billion during the current fiscal year to offset the shortfall from the collection of petroleum development levy (PDL) on oil products.

The government has brought the PDL to zero since August 15, 2004 to offset the rising impact of the international oil prices for the end-users.

Officials in the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) told Dawn on Friday that the Fund has asked the tax officials to raise additional revenues in excess of the projected target of Rs580 billion for 2004-05 for maintaining the projected budgetary deficit.

The government has no other option but to raise the taxes or reduce the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocation to adjust this shortfall, added the officials.

The government has projected to collect Rs47.5 billion under the PDL during the current year against the revised collection of Rs46.4 billion the previous year. When contacted, the CBR official spokesman M.S. Lal confirmed to Dawn that the Fund has asked for the realization of additional revenue of Rs10 billion to bridge the shortfall. However, he said that the target for the year has not been revised and would remain at Rs580 billion.

The government projected this target on the baseline of revenue collection of Rs510 billion during the year 2003-04. However, collections have reached to Rs518.8 billion during 2003-04, an increase of Rs8.8 billion.

Officials said that the Fund is of the opinion that as this growth is not reflected in 2004-05 target, it should be close to Rs590 billion during the year under review.

They said that no new taxes would be levied for realization of additional revenue but strict measures would be taken for making more compliance, and reduction in tax evasions.

According to officials, tax collection projections for the current fiscal were based on the baseline collection of last year, assumed high growth for various components of the GDP, the elasticity/buoyancy estimates and the expected impact of wide ranging budgetary measures.