LAHORE, July 3: The Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU), Lahore, responsible for collecting taxes from the corporate sector has exceeded revenue target for 2007-08 by 8 per cent at Rs22.66 billion against Rs21 billion in the previous year.

Briefing the media about the LTU performance on Thursday its director general Umar Farooq said that the total collection of the unit was Rs26.382 billion, including Rs8.49 billion raised by LTU officers out of demand. It was left with Rs22.66 billion after issuing refunds of Rs3.721 billion.

Tax collected/deducted at source (withholding tax) was Rs1,280 million, constituting only 5 per cent of total tax collection.

The audit division of the direct taxes side created a demand of Rs8,352.427 million during 2007-08 as compared to Rs7,499.194 last year. The division conducted 93 regular and composite audits as compared to 18 earlier. It disposed of 73 cases under section 122 (5A) during 2007-8 as compared to 53 during 2006-07.

The LTU director general said that the Legal Division of the LTU had also contributed a lot in reducing litigation and eliminating frivolous appeals during 2007-08.

The LTU collected Rs17,105 million in the form of sales tax during 2007-08 exceeding the target by Rs262 million. The LTU collected Rs7,818 million in federal excise duty against a target of Rs7,457 million showing an increase of Rs361 million.

He said that the LTU was responsible for recovering income tax from 253 and sales tax from 151 corporate sector assessees belonging to oil and gas, cement, sugar, engineering goods, electronics and banking sector. Wapda, which on average contributes 54 per cent to the revenue, had paid nothing this year because it had to pay for costly thermal power from the private sector.