ISLAMABAD, March 31: The CBR collected Rs398.2 billion during July-March period of the current fiscal year against the target of Rs395.8 billion, indicating a growth of 0.6 per cent.

Official provisional figures released here on Thursday showed that the revenue collection rose by 12.7 per cent when compared to the collection in the corresponding period of the last year.

The CBR expected that the collection would increase further when the revenue figures for the month of March 2005 were finalized in the next few days.

The tax-wise analysis showed direct tax revenue reached to Rs119.2 billion during the July-March period against the target of Rs114.7 billion, indicating an increase of 3.92 per cent. The collection under the head of sales tax stood at Rs164 billion against the target of Rs174 billion, a fall of 5.747 per cent.

The collection of customs duties went up to Rs79.3 billion during July-March period against the target of Rs74 billion, a growth of 7.16 per cent. Similarly, Rs35.7 billion were collected under the head of central excise duty against the target of Rs33.2, a rise of 7.53 per cent.

During the month of March 2005 the collection stood at Rs57.2 billion against the target of Rs55.1 billion, showing an increase of 3.81 per cent over.

The monthly break up showed Rs18.8 billion were collected as sales tax, Rs11.3 billion as customs, Rs4.2 billion as central excise and Rs22.9 billion as direct taxes.