KARACHI, May 13: The Balochistan government has sought the assistance of Sindh to increase its tax revenue which currently stood at Rs500 million compared to Sindh’s revenue of Rs9,500 million.

The assistance was sought by Balochistan’s Excise Minister Rustam Jamali during his meeting with his counterpart Mukesh Kumar Chawla in Karachi recently.

Rustum Jamali mentioned the infrastructure cess charged by the Sindh government on imports at the rate of 0.5 per cent.

He said his province had sizeable quantities of imports made through the dry port, airport and through border trade with Afghanistan and Iran.

He said his province was considering levying infrastructure cess on the pattern of Sindh to increase its revenue.

Mr Mukesh offered every possible assistance to his counterpart in generating more revenue.

Director-General Excise and Taxation Asif Marghoob Siddiqui told the Balochistan minister that the Sindh excise department had set up a linkage with the Customs through Pral to collect infrastructure cess at the import stage.

He advised the minister to enact the levy on import and contact the FBR for cess collection. However, the province would also have to make collection arrangements with the Customs posted at the borders.

Rustam Jamali also requested the Sindh minister to allow collection of motor vehicle tax on vehicles registered in Karachi.

The DG Sindh excise explained that under the MVR law, vehicle tax should be paid in the province where it had been registered.

The Balochistan excise department should request the owners of such vehicles to register their cars in the province after the expiry of one year.

The Sindh minister requested Rustam Jamali to bring the rate of excise duty on liquor at par with Sindh so that instances of smuggling could be discouraged.

The Balohcistan minister also expressed the desire to link his motor registration with the Sindh MVR to check fake or double registration.

Mr Mukesh informed his counterpart that the MVR was linked with the central customs computer network which collects data of all vehicles registered at Karachi. The data is already shared with the MVR in Lahore and Islamabad. He advised the Balochistan minister to discuss the issue with the FBR.

The meeting was also attended by Sindh’s excise secretary Naseer Jamali and director-general excise, Quetta, Raza Khan.