KARACHI, Sept 12: The Excise and Taxation Department has planned to carry out a survey of the hotels to ascertain their actual room rent, amid reports that the hotel owners show the room rent as low as 50 to 75 per cent to evade taxes.

This was announced by the adviser to chief minister for excise and taxation, M.A. Jalil, while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club here on Sunday. He directed the hotel tax staff to take appropriate measures in this regard and warned that strict action would be taken against the hotel owners and management, who were found evading the taxes.

He expressed hope that Rs80 million would be collected this year under the head of Hotel Tax as compared to previous year's collection of Rs35 million. The adviser claimed that the excise and taxation department took revolutionary measures which helped increasing the turnover during the last two months to 17 per cent more than that of the previous year.

He said that the department collected Rs911.731 million till August this year as compared to Rs694.907 million collected during the corresponding months in the previous fiscal year.

M.A. Jalil said that when he assumed the office the department was facing various problems, adds PPI. However, he said, several measures had been taken to over come the situation and lead the department in positive direction.

He said that the provincial government had set a tax collection target of Rs5,352 million for the year 2004-05 excluding property and entertainment tax which had been devolved to the city government. The target fixed for the previous fiscal year was Rs4,602 million, he added.

Giving further statistics, he said that the excise department collected Rs465.048 million in July 2004 against Rs332.155 million collected in July 2003. The adviser said that Motor Registration Wing, Infrastructure and Professional Tax were being computerized for which Rs23.034 million had been provided. Under the very network, all the districts of Sindh would be connected through computer, he said, adding that this will help in eradicating corruption.

Under the head of Motor Registration and Motor Vehicle Tax, he said, the excise and taxation department collected Rs13.65 million more as compared to the tax collection during the first two months of the last fiscal year. He expressed hope that the target would extend to Rs1,345 million this year while it was Rs1,187 million in the previous year.

He further said that the Motor Registration wing was first computerized in 1991 and was upgraded in 1996 enabling online connectivity with Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Mirpurkhas. He said that Rs6.086 million had earmarked in the current year's development programme to further upgrade the system.

M.A. Jalil said that after assuming the office he had made it clear that the menace of bribery would be eliminated from the department. During the last two months, he added, the department had made remarkable progress and several accused along with narcotics and arms were nabbed and challaned.

Giving some statistics, he said that around 35 excise crime cases were registered during the first two months of current fiscal year. As many as 37 accused were nabbed.

Over 15kg heroin; 255.845kg charas; 10kg opium; 189.500kg bhang; 1,540 bottles of liquor; 220 litres of counterfeited liquor; 50 bottles of rectified spirit; four vehicles and a large quantity of arms were confiscated, he added.

He disclosed that the National Highway via Punjab, Balochistan, Obaro, Ghotki, Kashmore, Jacobabad, Hub and Thatta was a popular smuggling route. However, he said that check-posts with reputed officers had been set up at these places. He expressed hope that setting up of these posts would help in controlling smuggling.

The adviser regretted that the excise department had been accorded with lesser resources as compare to other provincial and federal agencies like Anti-Narcotics Force, Pakistan Coast Guard, FIA and Police. The excise department had lesser arms, lesser contingency and untrained staff, nonetheless the excise department was making remarkable achievements, he added.

Eight new mobiles had been provided to the excise police with the excise department's own resources, he said, and added that sooner it would be equipped with wireless technology to make its detection system more effective.

He claimed that proper training of excise police was also being arranged and sooner it would be equipped with moderate weapons. He said that liquor and other alcoholic products being manufactured in Punjab to be transported to Baluchistan through Sindh were off-loaded in Sindh causing a loss in tax collection.

In order to stop the practice, distilleries situated outside Sindh had been directed to mark date, destination and badge numbers on their products so that it could be seized if sold in Sindh.

Referring to the Professional Tax, he said that Rs2.067 million were collected during the last two months and added that the target had been raised to Rs200 million against 157.120 million in the previous year.

He said that there were 5.6 million registered tax payers in Sindh out of which only two million people were paying it adding that sooner the rest 3.6 million would be included in the circle of tax payers that would increase the collection to Rs500 million in the next two months. He said that Rs8.45 million had been earmarked to computerize and upgrade the Professional Tax Wing.