KARACHI: Revenue from property tax plunged by 34.6 per cent to Rs596.6 million in July-September 2014-15 from Rs808.8 million in the last quarter due to teething problems in the switchover to the computerised system.

A spokesman for the Excise department said on Friday that the shortfall was not unexpected as the staff faced problems in issuing computerised tax challans, which could not reach a large number of people.

He expressed the hope that once problems in the computer system are overcome, revenue from property tax would increase.

The taxation department decided to switch over from manual to computerised tax challans from July 2014-15. The World Bank is also assisting the Sindh government to carry out a survey of property units in urban and rural areas to bring maximum number of units under the tax net.

The survey would first cover property units in Sukkar and other major interior towns and will then move to take up the gigantic task of enlisting units in the sprawling metropolis.

The collection from motor vehicle registration, was also not up to the mark and suffered a shortfall of Rs17.6m to Rs944m this quarter Rs961.6m earlier.

The reason for minus collection from MVR, has been attributed to high rates of withholding tax imposed by the FBR on motor vehicle registration from July this year.

The number of people turning for registration this year is far less than before, the official said.

The Sindh government has filed a petition with the Council of Common Interests contesting high rate of withholding tax.

Collection from cotton fee was also in minus columns to Rs36m in the current Q1 against Rs39.6m earlier. Decrease in cotton production this year adversely affected the revenue.

Revenue from professional tax was up by Rs17m to Rs113.7m this year against Rs96.7m earlier.

Collection from excise duty rose by 5.9pc to Rs684.4m in Q1, 2014-15 from Rs644m last year.

Entertainment duty fetched Rs16m this quarter against Rs10.7m earlier.

The revenue target for six provincial taxes for 2014-15 has been fixed at Rs37bn against Rs32bn last year.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014