KARACHI: Sindh has emerged as the only province of the country to collect higher revenue on account of sales tax on services during the first five months of the ongoing fiscal year.

Collection rose 13.28 per cent to Rs35.9 billion during the July-November period of 2018-19 compared with Rs31.69bn in the corresponding period last year, showed data released by the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) on Monday.

During November the collection rose 20.06pc to Rs8bn from Rs6.6bn in the same month last year. The rise comes despite suspension of sales tax on prepaid and postpaid cellular telecommunication services following the Supreme Court’s orders.

On the other hand, the Punjab Revenue Authority collected Rs35bn in the first five months of the ongoing fiscal year down from Rs43bn in the same period last year, a decline of 18.6pc, showed official data.

The performance of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tax authorities remained lacklustre as collection of sales tax on services fell to Rs889 million during the July-November period from Rs980m collected in the same period collected.

Balochistan’s sales tax on services collection data for the period under review was not available.With the limited size of tax on services collected by the provinces, the impact of loss of revenue from the telecom sector during the fiscal year will be significant.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2018