May 06, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 5: The Ministry of Finance has given a revenue collection target of Rs1.2 trillion to the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) for the fiscal year 2008-09 and asked it to identify new sectors for taxation, including the levy of capital gains tax on property and stock markets.

Informed sources told Dawn on Monday that a 15 per cent increase in revenue was being projected in the next budget. A relief package for the poor will also be announced in the budget. The coalition government has failed to announce the package before the budget because of the precarious financial position.

The sources said the government had suffered a revenue shortfall of Rs35 billion and had to revise the annual collection target from Rs1.025 trillion to Rs990 billion for the fiscal year 2007-08.

“The government plans to collect Rs210 billion more in the next financial year to achieve the 15 per cent growth in revenue,” the sources said.

Representatives of stock markets on Monday met officials of the Ministry of Finance and FBR and opposed the levy of capital gains tax. They said that except for India, no country in South Asia and South East Asia had ever imposed such a levy on bourses.

The sources said that the current two per cent Capital Value Tax on property was likely to be increased in the budget to improve government’s weak funding position.

The ministry has also asked the FBR to finalise its exercise of determining the total wealth of the country with a view to taking into account the revival of wealth tax.

However, the government had no plans to revise upward the income tax exemption of Rs150,000, the sources said. Some officials in the ministry believe that it is on the higher side and needs to be revised downward to increase the revenue during the next financial year.

FBR chief Abdullah Yousuf confirmed to Dawn that a 15 per cent growth in revenue was being projected in the budget. He said a number of new areas would have to be explored to increase the revenue collection.

He expressed the hope that the government would succeed in achieving the new resource mobilisation in 2008-09.