March 11, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1429

KARACHI, March 10: The Ministry of Excise and Taxation plans to make an arrangement for collection of infrastructure cess round-the-clock at the ports and airport in Karachi.

There is also a plan to set up a tax payment counter at the Karachi Port for payment of cess on imports cleared through the Port Qasim.

The infrastructure cess is charged on all imports at the rate of 0.5 per cent of the C&F value. The average annual collection of the cess amounts to Rs4,519 million.

The tax facilitation measures were announced by the Excise and Taxation Director-General, Asif Margoob Siddiqui, at a meeting with the Customs Agents Association held here on Monday.

General Secretary of the association Arshad Jamal informed the DG that the customs agents had to face difficulties in making payment of cess at Port Qasim which requires a lot of time.

He suggested that a cess payment counter for imports coming through the Port Qasim be set up at the Karachi Port.

The official assured the customs agents that a counter would be set up at the Karachi port for the purpose.

The customs agents suggested that they should be allowed to make payment through cheques for the extra amount accrued through fluctuation in exchange rates on a daily basis because in such cases they have to approach banks again for the pay order of the extra amount.

Mr Siddiqui assured the meeting that he would take up the issue with the high-ups in the ministry.

He further said that as far as the issue of 24-hour payment of infrastructure cess is concerned, the directorate has taken up the matter with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and has requested it to collect the cess as part of the customs automated tax collection system which also includes collection of sales tax, income tax, and petroleum levy, etc.

The issue was discussed at a meeting with the FBR chairman in September last year in Karachi, who directed the Karachi Customs to do the needful, but there has been no response from the customs despite many reminders.

The linkage of cess payment with Customs system would ensure round-the-clock payment of the cess facilitating the importers. It would also streamline the cess collection in a more transparent manner.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Siddiqui said his department was already collecting withholding tax on behalf of the FBR on registration of vehicles. Similarly, it expects the FBR to reciprocate the same.

The directorate is ready to pay service charges in this regard.

Meanwhile, the excise and taxation department collected Rs6,384 million during the first seven months of the current fiscal year against the proportionate target of Rs6,320 million.. The collection is 13 per cent higher than those of the same period last year.The break-up of the collection shows that amount collected under infrastructure cess was 3,574 million; motor vehicle tax Rs1,377 million; provincial excise duty Rs1,068.6 million; professional tax Rs140.3 million; cotton fee Rs102.4 million and hotel tax Rs120.7 million.

A huge amount of Rs945.5 million, due under the infrastructure cess, has been deposited in the shape of bank guarantee up to February under the order of the Sindh High Court. Therefore, the total amount collected under the various heads comes to Rs7,329.7 million.

The revenue target allocated to the excise and taxation department for the year 2007-08 is Rs9,480.4 million and the trend of collection shows that the target would not only be achieved but exceeded.

The collection of property tax in Sindh during the period stood at Rs9,54.8 million and entertainment duty at Rs14.5 million. Both these taxes, though devolved to the City District Government, Karachi, are still being collected by the department.