LAHORE, July 8: Some 50,670 more tax returns were filed by the end of June this year as compared to the corresponding period as a result of the efforts to broaden tax base.
As many as 308,542 returns were received by the end of June 2007 as opposed to 359,212 filed up to this June-end, Lahore Regional Tax Office director-general Khwaja Shaukat Ali said at a news conference on Tuesday.
During the 2007-08 fiscal, the overall collection of taxes under all heads amounted to Rs31,500 million as compared to last year’s figure of Rs25,565 million, showing an increase of 23 per cent.
Khwaja said efforts were directed in areas where collection had been comparatively low in the previous years and no head of collection, irrespective of its contribution to overall income, was ignored. As a result, worker welfare fund showed a huge increase of 567 per cent from Rs6 million to Rs40 million.
Collection under advance tax posted an increase of 187 per cent to Rs2,333 million from Rs813 million of last year.
A sum of Rs42 million collected out of current demand created as compared to last year’s Rs18 million, registering an increase of 133 per cent, said the RTO director-general.
There was an increase of 40 per cent under the salary head from Rs2,425 million to Rs3,389 million.
Collection under the dividends head rose to Rs650 million from Rs498 million, depicting an increase of 31 per cent.
Rental head collection showed a raise from Rs59 million to Rs111 million, an increase of 88 per cent.
Under transport head, the collection almost doubled this year from Rs132 million to Rs242 million, showing an increase of 83 per cent.
Cash withdrawals rose by 18 per cent and fetched Rs1,250 million from last year’s Rs1,063 million.
Khwaja said that along with the efforts to collect taxes, there had been consistent emphasis on issuance of refunds.
“At the beginning of the year, there were 10,207 pending refund applications, out of which refund has been issued in 5,876 cases involving Rs1,479.775 million. The pending 4,331 cases, involving a refund of Rs555.416 million, will be disposed of on a priority basis,” he added.