ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: The revenue collection registered an increase of 14 per cent to Rs198.8 billion during the first half of the current financial year against Rs174.5 billion the same period last year.

Official figures released by Central Board of Revenue (CBR) on Tuesday showed that the collection fell short by Rs1.7 billion against the target of Rs200.5 billion set for July-December 2002.

Member Direct Taxes and CBR official spokesman, Vakil Ahmed Khan claimed that the board would achieve the target as it expected to collect over Rs2 billion when the collection figures of the month of December would be finalized in the next 10 days.

Vakil said that in case CBR succeeded in meeting the target, it would mark an improvement of over 15 per cent as compared to collection of last year.

According to the official data the revenue collection stood at Rs41 billion during the month of December 2002 against the target of Rs44 billion. However, in comparison to the last year collection of Rs38.9 billion, it registered a growth of over 8 per cent.