ISLAMABAD, May 31: The revenue receipts fell short by 21.5 per cent to Rs31.4 billion during May this year against the target of Rs40 billion set for the same month.

And the Central Board of Revenue has provisionally collected Rs337.88 billion during July-May period of the current financial year against the target of Rs358 billion set for the same period, showing a decline of 5.62 per cent.

Top tax officials in the CBR when contacted said that it was expected to collect Rs1 billion each under the head of customs and sales tax.

They also said that Rs2-3 billion were to be collected under the head of direct taxes in the first two weeks of May.

Commenting on the fall, tax authorities said that one reason for decline in the revenue collection was due to lowering of dutiable imports in 11 months of the current financial year.

According to the officials, appreciation of the rupee against the dollar was also one of the major factor for low revenue collections under the heads of customs, sales tax and withholding tax collected at the import stage.

The officials said that importers were also not clearing their goods for knowing that the custom duty was going to be scaled down in the next budget due to which duty collected at the import stage declined.

About 40 per cent of the total revenue raised from all federal taxes was collected at the import stage on dutiable imports.

Provisional figures made available with Dawn, showed that the tax authorities collected Rs115.55 billion under the head of direct taxes during July-May period of the current financial year against the target of Rs123.15 billion set for the same period, registering a negative growth of 6.17 per cent.

Further break-up showed that the tax authorities collected Rs143.314 billion under the head of sales tax during July-May period of the current fiscal against the target of Rs150.37 billion set for the same period, showing a decline of 4.69 per cent.

Under the head of customs, Rs38.241 billion were collected during the period under review against the target of Rs46.42 billion set for the same period, a decline of 17.61 per cent.

The tax authorities collected Rs39.62 billion under the head of central excise duty during July-May period of the current financial year against the target of Rs40.92 billion set for the same period, registering a a decline of 3.11 per cent.

Monthly tax-wise break-up showed that the tax authorities collected Rs7.2 billion under the head of direct taxes during May against the target of Rs11.8 billion, a decline of 38.98 per cent. Under the head of indirect taxes, Rs24.3 billion were collected during May this year against Rs28.3 billion target set for the same month, showing a decrease of 14.13 per cent.