KARACHI, Feb 14: The Sindh excise and taxation department claims to have achieved 81 per cent revenue collection target fixed for the current fiscal year.

Of the targeted amount of over Rs11.5 billion, the department has already collected Rs9.3 billion during the first seven months (July-Jan) of the current fiscal year against Rs5.5 billion collected last year.

The department has replaced Sindh Board of Revenue as a major revenue earner after a drastic cut in stamp duty collections due to decline in registration of property transactions after economic slump and high incidence of taxation.

The newly appointed excise and taxation secretary, Mohsin Haqqani, told Dawn that to stop revenue leakages, the department had requested the Federal Board of Revenue to make infrastructure cess collections part of collections through automated clearance system of the model customs collectorate.

At present cess is collected through the PRAL revenue collection system. However on three KPT berths, which were given to Paccs, cess collection is done through manual system, which is prone to leakages. The collection of cess through Paccs would help boost revenue. The cess collection has already been computerised at Port Qasim and Jinnah International Terminal.

Mr Haqqani said that there was great potential of generating more revenue under professional tax which is presently charged at the rate of Rs150 from salaried professionals and from Rs10,000 to Rs100,000 from commercial establishments.

The department collected Rs6.6 billion in infrastructure cess in seven months against Rs3 billion collected last year, registering a 116 per cent increase.

The amount does not include about Rs1.5 billion deposited as bank guarantee in the court.

Revenue from motor vehicle registration MVR stood at Rs1,196 million during the period under review against Rs1,205 billion last year.

New Excise DG Shoaib Siddiqui told Dawn that to make up for the shortfall in revenue from motor vehicle registration, a province-wise checking campaign at the month end to nab defaulters of vehicle tax.