KARACHI, July 9: The Medium Taxpayers Unit (MTU), Karachi, collected Rs17.624 billion during the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2005. The collection exceeded the target of Rs17.070 billion by Rs554 million, officials said on Saturday.

The revenue collection out of the cases assigned to the MTU Karachi was Rs15.311 billion but had been raised to Rs17.624 billion, yielding a growth of Rs2.314 billion, which is 15.11 per cent higher than the collection for the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal.

The last ditch efforts made by the unit to have higher revenue resulted in a fabulous collection of Rs2.295 billion during the month of June, 2005.

The MTU Karachi had been in operation since December 1, 2004, but it was formally inaugurated by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan on June 27, 2005.

The unit is a pilot project under the ongoing reform agenda carried out by the Central Board of Revenue with the assistance of World Bank grant of $150 million. The Large Taxpayer Unit, Karachi, was also a pilot project, which was also a success story.

Taxpayers, who are now termed ‘clients’, are provided tax facilitation under ‘one roof’ in a transparent, congenial and fully automated atmosphere with minimum contract between them and tax collectors.

The MTU Karachi is operated on the basis of functional bifurcation like enforcement, audit, legal and tax facilitation divisions. These systems do not only help reduce corruption but also encourage efficiency and professionalism in approach and methods of tax collectors.

The MTU Karachi is the largest reformed unit of the country catering to the needs of more than 234,000 taxpayers of Karachi.

On the basis of successful operations of five medium taxpayers units at Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta, the CBR intends to create 12 regional tax offices (RTOs) across the country. These RTOs will collect all the internal taxes under one roof and are likely to become operational in the current fiscal.