KARACHI: Sindh’s Excise and Taxation Department (ETD) collected Rs27.31 billion in revenue during the first half of 2017-18, showing a growth of 11 per cent over the corresponding period when collection stood at Rs24.69bn.

Almost all the heads under which duty and taxes are being collected recorded moderate to big gains with the exception of property tax, which made a modest fall of 1pc to come in at Rs1.24bn during first half of the last fiscal year.

The highest growth has been registered in collection of excise duty by 48pc at Rs2.33bn as against Rs1.57bn collected in the same period last fiscal year.

Increase in motor vehicles’ taxes followed, up 22pc, at Rs3.14bn compared to Rs2.58bn recorded in the corresponding period last year. Revenue collection on account of infrastructure cess rose by 7pc at Rs20.19bn as against Rs18.93bn collected in the same period last year. The ETD Director General Shoaib Siddiqui said that the infrastructure cess is collected on imports and was introduced in 1994 in order to charge all imports using province’s roads, bridges etc and has online link with Customs’ Weboc (web based once customs) system.

The collection of cotton fee recorded 27pc growth at Rs150m versus Rs128m collected last fiscal year. The professional tax also registered a nominal rise of 3pc at Rs230m compared to Rs225m collected last year.

The entertainment duty grew by 12pc at Rs28m in contrast to Rs24m collected in December 2016. However, property tax witnessed a modest decline of 1pc at Rs1.24bn compared to 1.24bn last fiscal year.

Explaining the fall in collection of property tax, Mr Siddiqui said that at the start of new fiscal year the computer system faced some issues for couple of months and with its restoration the collection is improving.

He further said that in order to facilitate taxpayers, the department has started working on a scheme to collect taxes online. In the first stage, motor vehicles would be introduced to the system while other taxes will be added from next fiscal year.

The taxpayer will only have to download tax challan from the system and submit the amount through credit card or cash in a bank. This will give much needed relief to taxpayers who have to stand in long queues for getting challan and submission of tax amount.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2018