May 13, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 7, 1429

KARACHI, May 12: The Regional Tax Office, Karachi, has collected Rs70.656 billion in revenue during first ten months (July-April) of the current fiscal year against Rs58.812 billion last year showing 20 per cent increase.

The RTO also exceeded its revenue target fixed for this year by 21 per cent

Direct taxes collection at the national level during this period registered a growth of only 4 per cent, whereas the RTO under this head recorded an increase of 21 per cent, official figures revealed.

The gross collection of revenue during the period stood at Rs72.543 billion or 16 per cent higher than the same period last year. Consequently, after making payments towards refunds the net revenue collection of the RTO was 20 per cent higher over last year.

Asrar Rauf, director general RTO, said that the major factor, which helped improve revenue collection, was a major tax demand created by the department by adopting better monitoring procedures with the government and non-government organisations.

The DG said that about four months back the RTO was lagging behind in its revenue collection target by Rs10 billion owing to lesser collection of advance tax and tax with returns. However, extra efforts by the staff helped the department exceed the revenue target.

There were lesser payments towards refund at Rs1.886 billion from Rs3.573 billion made in the same period last year. The reason was timely payment of refunds by the FBR for the last couple of years.

The RTO managed to increase revenue collection by creating higher tax demand up to 81 per cent at Rs2.411 billion against Rs1.332 billion last year.

Revenue collection on account of withholding tax other than imports surged by 30 per cent to Rs42.532 billion from Rs32.843 billion.

Despite cut on import duty from 6 per cent to 1 per cent on some manufacturing units revenue collection stood higher. Collection of withholding tax at import stage during the period under review stood higher by 20 per cent at Rs18.982 billion from Rs17.782 billion last year.

There was, however, lesser collection at Rs1.371 billion along with tax returns as against Rs3.425 billion recorded last year. The increasing practice on part of taxpayers to have their tax deducted at source has affected the tax amount with returns, Asrar Rauf said.

Similarly, there was steep fall in collection of advance tax at Rs2.910 billion compared to Rs4.485 billion last year.

Tax collection from CVT, Workers Welfare Fund and others also declined by 26 per cent at Rs1.994 billion from Rs2.692 billion recorded last year.