KARACHI, July 3: Sindh will soon have a modern tax house to provide one-window tax payment facility to taxpayers. It would be fully automated on the pattern of FBR’s Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU).

Talking to newsmen on Thursday, Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla said a proposal had been sent to the finance department to allocate funds. Financing would also be arranged from the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank for reforming province’s tax system.

Presently, the various tax offices are scattered in old buildings with congested space creating hurdles in tax payment and recovery.

The excise and taxation department is the largest contributor to the Sindh revenue contributing over Rs10 billion in taxes annually. The amount is expected to increase to Rs12.5 billion next year with the increase in infrastructure cess from 0.5 per cent to 0.8 per cent in the new budget.

The minister said that modern equipment and vehicles had been acquired to increase efficiency of the tax staff. He would soon distribute about 16 mobiles fitted with latest communication gadget and nine other vehicles. Modern communications equipment is also being purchased to chase narcotics smugglers.

The department collected Rs10,408 million during 2008-09 crossing the Rs10 billion mark for the first time in the history. The amount is 20 per cent more than the last year collections. The main contributors to the revenue are motor vehicle tax 2138.7 million, infrastructure cess Rs6027.2 million and excise duty Rs1757.9 million.

Director-General Excise and Taxation Asif Marghoub Siddiqui told Dawn that the higher collection this year had been possible due to strong facilitation and recovery measures.

He said strict monitoring on border with Balochistan to check liquor smuggling also contributed well to the revenue generated from excise duty. He said that the total tax revenue collected by the department did not include Rs1400 million deposited in bank guarantee in the court by some litigants.

The total revenue of the department would jump toRs11808 million if the bank guarantee amount is added to it.

Meanwhile, Excise and Taxation Secretary Naseer Jamali has written a letter to Customs to make cess collection a part of total custom levies collected through automation system to make collections more transparent. The present collection of cess on all imports is manual which is not only cumbersome but also causes delay in payment.