May 10, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1429

KARACHI, May 9: Professionals in Sindh were burdened with new taxes in the budget 2007-08 but the same were not collected by the excise and taxation department in the absence of any legal authority.

The new taxes were on foreign travel, health, and education.

Sources at the excise department told Dawn on Friday that the finance department failed to issue notifications in the finance bill stipulating rate and mode of collection of the new taxes announced in the budget.

The department was given collection target of Rs102 million under the head of professional tax, which could not be collected in the absence of any notification issued in the finance bill.

Another new tax announced in the last budget was about deduction at source without any description in the finance bill as to who would be the parties to act as withholding agents.

Sources at the excise department told Dawn that without specifying the rate and mode of collection of new taxes, the finance department assigned collection targets.

The targets included foreign travel tax Rs16.24 million, health tax Rs23.19 million and education tax Rs21.56 million and the tax to be deducted at source Rs23.33 million.

When contacted, Excise and Taxation Director-General Asif Marghoob Siddiqui said he sent a detailed reference to the secretary requesting him to inquire from the finance department about the tax rates and mode of collection. However despite several reminders there was no response from the authorities concerned.

It may be pointed out that at the federal level finance division issues notifications specifying rates and mode of collection of new taxes soon after these are announced in the budget every year. But in Sindh’s case, there were no notifications providing a legal framework for collection of new levies.

Under the existing taxes, professionals in the province have to pay Rs150 as professional tax. However, they were greatly relieved when the new taxes did not materialise.

The local taxation experts questioned the competence of the finance department, which committed a serious lapse in governance of financial matters.

The excise department sources maintained that the department was absolved of the responsibility of meeting the target of Rs130 million professional tax fixed for the year 2007-08 due to finance department folly.