LAHORE, July 16: Finance Minister Tariq Hamid claimed on Tuesday that the Excise and Taxation Department had collected Rs4.6 billion taxes during the last fiscal year, exceeding the Rs4.5 billion budgetary target.

Speaking at a news conference held here at the E&T director general’s office, the minister said the department had collected Rs1.636 billion property tax, Rs1.515 billion motor vehicles tax, Rs370 million cotton duty, Rs216 million professional tax, Rs115 million entertainment duty, Rs100 hotels tax and Rs34 million for opium licenses.

He said the figures were being finalized and were bound to improve. He said the department had raised the tax on liquor from five per cent to seven per cent.

Answering a question, the minister said the department had changed the basis of property tax assessment from number of bedrooms to rent. He said the department had also classified different areas into categories A to E. He claimed that the exercise had been conducted in each district. He insisted that the new assessment system was fair.

From July 1, the minister said, the department had provided additional relief in property tax assessment. He said the department would exempt up to 10 per cent of the value on houses up to 19 years old, 20 per cent on over 20 years old houses and 25 per cent on houses more than 30 years old.

Answering another question, he said the department had fixed cinema taxes by calculating average of three years’ taxes. He said the Cinema Association had gone into an appeal demanding that they should be charged taxes on actual income. He said the department was still not charging taxes on actual income though it was sending its officials to maintain a record of visitors at each show.

The minister said the department had also decided during the year that the department would return the original file to the owner at the time of registration.

He said the department was now keeping a copy of the original file to end corruption. He said the department was also strictly implementing the decision to issue registration numbers in sequence.

He said the department had started third party insurance on vehicles. He said the department had sought a list of credible insurance companies from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to award contracts through their authorized agents.