ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The import of cars increased by 270 per cent to 10,524 units during the first half (July-Dec) of the current fiscal year compared to 2,852 units the same period of the last year.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday Central Board of Revenue chairman M. Abdullah Yousuf said that this increase was occurred following revising down of duties and taxes in the budget for import of cars.

The chairman said that it had a positive impact in the domestic market as the premium rates had declined significantly, adding, the likely import of 20,000 to 25,000 cars during the whole fiscal would have further impact in this respect.

Releasing the revenue statistics, Mr Yousuf said that the net revenue collection in July-December 2005-06 rose to Rs322 billion as against Rs262.5 billion collected the same period last year, a growth of 22.7 per cent.

The collection had also exceeded the target of Rs308.6 billion set for the period under review, he added.

Mr Yousuf said that the growth in tax collection had been broad-based with all the federal taxes having performed well including direct taxes which grew 32 per cent, sales tax 20.5 per cent, excise duties 7.3 per cent and customs duties 20 per cent.

He said that the share of direct tax receipts in the total collection had been 32.1 per cent, sales tax 40.9 per cent, federal excise duty 7.9 per cent and customs duties 19.1 percent.

This outcome, especially for direct taxes, is slightly better than last year showing that no further burden of taxes is being shifted to low-income groups, he added.

He said that total refunds during the period under review relating to direct taxes increased by 44 per cent, whereas sales tax refunds decreased by 40 per cent due to zero-rating of the entire chain of five export-oriented industries.

Mr Yousuf said that the CBR was on track to bring in improvement and efficiency in tax collection system and facilitation of taxpayers through the reforms process.

He underlined the establishment of Large and Medium Taxpayers Units, Regional Tax Offices, the introduction of E-filing concept in sales tax and income tax regimes, automation in tax system, capacity building of tax collection machinery etc., as some measures being taken to improve the tax system and the relations between taxpayers and tax collectors.

Responding to a query, he said that rationalization of tariff structure of main items in the last budget had curtailed the incidence of smuggling to some extent.