ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) on Thursday admitted that the fall in revenue collection in comparison to the target for the month of October 2006 was due to payment of Rs7 billion refunds made to Wapda and some other corporations.

An official announcement issued here on Thursday said that the collection would have been better in case this amount had not been paid to Wapda in addition to the settlement of normal refund claims during the month under review.

Official statistics available with Dawn showed that the payment of income tax refund to taxpayers declined by 33.3 per cent to Rs4.685 billion during the first four months of the current fiscal year as against Rs7.027 billion paid during the same period of last year.

This showed that the income tax department held up the genuine refund of the taxpayers apparently for reaching their target level set for the same period.

Similarly, the payment of customs rebate to exporters also declined by 15.9 per cent to Rs5.821 billion during the period under review as against Rs6.925 billion over the corresponding period of last year.

The sales tax refund, however, increased by 14 per cent to Rs20.831 billion during the July-Oct period of the current fiscal year as against Rs18.279 billion over the same period of last year.