ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: Revenue collection recorded an impressive growth of 25.7 per cent during the first two months of the current fiscal year over last year, federal board of revenue (FBR) data revealed on Saturday.

The new fiscal year (2008-09) brings a fresh hope for country’s revenue collection as the second month also entered a double digit growth while the economic growth is slowing amid political tension.

In absolute terms, the revenue collection reached Rs139.677 billion in July-August of 2008-09 against a target of Rs134.8 billion, showing an increase 3.6 per cent over the target set for the period.

However, revenue recorded a growth of 25.7 per cent during the period under review compared with last year’s collection of Rs111.1 billion.

The government had projected a revenue target of Rs1,252 billion for 2008-09 while Rs1,002 billion were collected during the year 2007-08, which is an increase of 24.9 per cent.

The government has imposed 15 to 50 per cent regulatory duty on import of 379 items, apparently to contain import of these products, but it would also yield an additional revenue for the government.

In the budget, the government had imposed new taxes to the tune of more than Rs80 billion to achieve the target of Rs1252 billion for the current fiscal year.

Tax-wise details show that revenue on account of direct taxes yielded a healthy growth of 29.1 per cent as Rs37.6 billion were collected during the July-August period of the current fiscal year against Rs29.1 billion last year.

The sales tax collection reached Rs65.4 billion in the period under review against Rs55.1 billion last year, indicating a growth of 18.8 per cent.

Tax receipts on account of federal excise registered a growth of 74.4 per cent, during the period under review as collection reached Rs14.7 billion in July-Aug as against Rs8.4 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

Revenue from customs duties increased by 19 per cent at Rs22 billion in July-August during the current fiscal year against Rs18.5 billion last year.

The statistics shows that the income tax refund to taxpayers declined by 29.7 per cent to Rs1.04 billion in July-August in the current fiscal year against Rs1.48 billion over the same period of last year.