ISLAMABAD, April 27: The collection of general sales tax (GST) from motor cars, fertilisers and papers has shown a major decline during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year over the same period of last year.

Official figures compiled by Central Board of Revenue (CBR) indicated that the collection of the levy from motor cars dipped by 68 per cent, fertilisers 40 per cent and paper 28 per cent, respectively, during the period under review over the same period of last year.

On the other hand the collection of GST from some sectors has also shown less growth during the first nine months of the current fiscal year. These include natural gas 3 per cent, and cement 2.3 per cent.

Secretary Sales Tax, CBR, Wajid Ali informed the collectors of sales tax and federal excise quarterly conference held here on Sunday that the shortfall in sales tax from cement was due to price reduction of the commodity in the period under review, shortfall in GST growth in natural gas was mainly due to increase in zero-rated domestic supplies of distribution companies, and increase in input purchases.

In case of motor cars the reason for shortfall in sales tax collections was less advance booking of vehicles and less import of vehicles etc; in case of energy sector, the shortfall was due to clearance of backlog of refunds.

The conference was informed that various sectors have shown positive growth in sales tax collections in first nine months of current financial year. They included Telecom (40 per cent), POL (11 per cent), Sugar (42 per cent), Services (15 per cent), Beverages (20 per cent), and cigarettes (24 per cent). The sectors, which have shown positive growth in federal excise collection during the period under reference (July-March), as compared to the same period last year, included cigarettes (15 per cent), cement (19 per cent), natural gas (11 per cent), POL (31 per cent), beverages (24 per cent) etc.

On payment of sales tax refunds, the conference was informed that an amount of Rs7.5 billion sales was pending with various collectorates.

Chairman, CBR M Abdullah Yousuf reminded the collectors of their responsibilities towards successful implementation of on-going tax reforms programme.

The chairman was confident that within next few months a visible change would be witnessed. "Our ultimate objective is to transform the CBR into an efficient, friendly, automated and transparent organisation, which could benefit all the stakeholders," he added.