KARACHI, March 27: Tax revenues fell more than 3 per cent in the first eight months of the fiscal year, partly due to duty refunds to help exporters cope with the impact of the September 11 attacks, officials said on Wednesday.

The revenues were 57 per cent of the government’s target for the whole year, which it had already reduced because of the slump in the aftermath of the attacks and the war in Afghanistan.

“Till now we are quite confident that Insha Allah we will achieve the target, but that is dependent on a big if,” if imports and exports pick up over the rest of the fiscal year, Vakil Ahmed, spokesman for the CBR, told Reuters.

Revenues stood at Rs234.93 billion ($3.91bn) in the July-February period of the 2001/02 fiscal year, down 3.64pc from the same period of last year, the CBR said.—Reuters