KARACHI, Nov 19: The Sindh excise and taxation department collected Rs2.94 billion taxes and levies in the first four months of the current fiscal year which is 13 per cent more than Rs2.55 billion recovered during the same period in 2006-07.

This improvement in taxation recovery, according to director- general of excise and taxation, Mohammad Asif Marghoob Siddiqui, has come despite the fact that excise duty could not be collected for a month because of closure of wine stores and quite a good amount of infrastructure fee is being deposited in the court because of litigation.

An amount of Rs412.28 million has been deposited in court as infra structure fees.

Infrastructure cess is being collected on transportation of imported goods and one of the main revenue source generated as much as Rs1.64 billion.

Thanks to unending stream of automobiles on roads because of government’s policy to provide generous loans from banks and leasing companies, the Motor Vehicle Tax remained the other major revenue source and contributed Rs670.43 million. Provincial excise department contributed Rs446.60 million.

In addition, the department collected during July to October 2007 an amount of Rs98.76 million professional tax, Rs30.43 million cotton fees and Rs55.47 million hotel tax.

The department recovered Rs606.73 million of property tax in the last four months as against Rs580 million in the same period of 2006.

Substantial improvement was witnessed in collection of entertainment duty in July to October 2007 when it exceeded Rs7 million from Rs4.92 million in the same period last year.

The government had fixed a target of Rs9.58 billion excise and tax recovery for 2007-08.