ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Revenue collection for the first four months of the current financial year registered an increase of over 28 per cent over the corresponding period last year, according to provisional figures released on Saturday.

The receipts for the July-October period totalled Rs349.8 billion while the tally for the same period for 2007-08 was Rs271.488 billion. The revenue collection also exceeded the July-October target by Rs20 billion.

Figures showed that the collection for October reached Rs87.689 billion — surpassing by 32 per cent the receipts for Oct 2007 of Rs66 billion.

The unexpected growth in revenue collection, particularly for general sales tax, has been attributed to inflation of over 25 per cent.

The revenue growth reflects that the economy is still showing positive signs despite imposition of more than 50 per cent additional duty on import of food and luxury items.

The tax authorities, however, withheld payment of refunds and rebate to show good revenue results.

Statistics showed that payment of refunds of income tax and sales tax declined by 36.9 per cent and 18.9 per cent, respectively, and customs rebate by 75.7 per cent in October.