ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) recorded negative growth in the federal excise duty (FED) collection in six major cities of the country during 2016-17 from a year ago.

Official data shows that negative collection was recorded in these cities despite the fact that the government has enhanced perks and privileges of tax officers.

The Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) of Islamabad witnessed a negative growth of eight per cent in FED collection to Rs78.932 billion in 2016-17 against Rs85.994bn over the corresponding period of previous year.

LTU Islamabad’s total share in the FED collection was 42pc during the year under review.

The second biggest contribution of the FED was from LTU Karachi. However, no growth was recorded in FED collection which stood at Rs60.234bn in 2016-17 as against Rs60.09bn over the previous year.

The FED collection of RTO-II in Lahore entered a negative growth of 82pc, which fell to Rs32m during the year under review as against Rs181m collected over the last year. The FED collection of Regional Tax Office (RTO) Multan dipped by 46pc to Rs303m in 2016-17 as against Rs559m over the previous year.

RTO Rawalpindi collected a mere Rs5m as FED as against Rs45m in the previous year, reflecting a decline of 89 per cent. Similarly, a significant drop of 67pc was recorded in the FED collection by RTO Faisalabad as it collected an amount of Rs71m as against Rs212m.

RTO Gujranwala collected no FED during the whole year under review. Last year, an amount of Rs1m was collected as FED by the tax office.

The LTU Lahore collected an amount of Rs33.927bn in 2016-17 as against Rs22.994bn over the previous year, recorded a growth of 48pc. LTU-II Karachi collected Rs3.55bn FED as against Rs3.06bn over the previous year, reflecting an increase of 16pc.

Corporate RTO Karachi collected Rs41m as FED, RTO Karachi-II Rs36m, RTO Karachi-III Rs1m, Corporate RTO Lahore Rs120m, RTO Lahore-II Rs32m, RTO Quetta Rs5m, RTO Hyderabad Rs1m, RTO Sargodha Rs1m, RTO Bahawalpur Rs9m, RTO Sialkot Rs18m, RTO Sukkur Rs19m, RTO Islamabad Rs834m and RTO Abbottabad Rs63m.

The FED collection in RTO Peshawar recorded a growth of 144pc to Rs9.391bn as against Rs3.848bn over the previous year.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2017