ISLAMABAD, June 18: The revenue collection under the head of sales tax declined by 4.95 per cent to Rs207.754 billion during the 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year as against the target of Rs218.7 billion set for the same period.

Official figures released by Central Board of Revenue (CBR) here on Saturday showed that the shortfall in the sales tax was occurred mainly due to negative growth of 1.3 per cent in sales tax collection at domestic stage during the period under review over the same period of the last year.

However, the sales tax collection registered an increase of 15.9 per cent at import stage during the July-May period compared to corresponding period of last year.

According to the statistics, the sales tax collection registered a growth of 8.9 per cent during the period under review when compared with the collection of Rs190.717 billion during the same period last year.

On the whole, the tax authorities raised Rs500.544 billion during the 11 months this fiscal year as against Rs502.5 billion target set for the same period, indicating a shortfall of Rs1.956 billion.

For achieving the revised target of Rs590 billion for the current fiscal year, the CBR would have to collect Rs89.456 billion during June 2005.