ISLAMABAD, March 10: The tax authorities will have to collect Rs191 billion during the next four months (March-June) to achieve the Rs460 billion target set for the current financial year.

A senior official in the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) told Dawn on Monday that the tax authorities have given an assurance to Abbas Mirakhor, executive director of International Monetary Fund (IMF), that the CBR would easily achieve the target.

The IMF executive director is visiting Pakistan to review the performance of all economic indicators under fifth review of Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF).

The tax authorities also briefed the IMF executive director on the ongoing reform process of the restructuring of the tax administration and performance of all those initiatives taken in this connection.

The Fund officials were informed that the total revenue receipts increased by 14.4 per cent during the eight months (July-February) period of 2002-03 to Rs269.1 billion against Rs234.9 billion netted during the same period of last year.

However, the revenue collection remained short of target by 0.92 per cent during the period under review against the target of Rs271.6 billion set for the same period.

Mirakhor was informed that during the eight months the revenue collection under the head of income tax and central excise duty registered a marginal decline over the same period of last year.

The CBR official said that the line members assured the Fund that in the remaining months of this fiscal the decline under these two heads would be arrested and the Rs460 billion target would be achieved easily.

The official statistics, on monthly basis, showed that tax authorities collected Rs33.5 billion during February 2003 against Rs27.6 billion during the same month of last year, showing an increase of 21.3 per cent.

Further break-up of the statistics showed that the tax authorities collected Rs123.062 billion under the head of sales tax during the July-February period against Rs99.296 billion collected during the same period of last year, showing an increase of 23.93 per cent.

The tax authorities collected Rs81.054 billion under the head of direct taxes against Rs83.685 billion over the same period of last year, registering a decrease of 3.14 per cent.

While the collection under the head of customs duty increased by more than 55.33 per cent to Rs38.254 billion during the period under review against Rs24.626 billion of last year.

The revenue receipts from CED declined by 2.04 per cent to Rs26.767 billion against Rs27.327 billion over the corresponding period of last year.