LAHORE, Feb 7: The sales tax recovery by the Lahore Collectorate of Sales Tax and Central Excise during the first half of the current financial year (July-Dec) fell 11.5 percent short of the target.

Sales tax officials told Dawn on Thursday that the collectorate had collected Rs8.36 billion compared to the Rs9.45 billion target.

Gross collection of sales tax by the collectorate, however, was some Rs1.816 billion greater than Rs6.544 billion during the same period last year.

The collectorate recovered Rs193.94 million in arrears during the first half of the fiscal compared to Rs212.37 million recovered during the same period last year.

The officials said refunds to exporters from sales tax increased by 68 per cent to Rs4.816 billion during the first six months of the current fiscal from last year’s Rs2.868 billion. They said they had registered 447 new manufacturers, 379 importers, 233 exporters, 130 distributors, and 659 wholesalers under the sales tax law. However, no new retailer was registered by the collectorate under the law although 108 new registered retailers and 4,546 turnover retailers were brought into the sales tax net.