ISLAMABAD, Feb 14: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has yet to take concrete steps for arresting the constant decline in collection of Central Excise Duty (CED) on aerated beverages and cigarettes in the current financial year.

Official report prepared by the CBR available with Dawn showed that the CED collection from aerated beverages continued decline in the first half year despite the reduction of CED rates on retail price from 15 to 12 per cent.

The report says that even though the 8.6 per cent decline in collection could partially be attributed to the seasonal dip in the winter months of the product, a constant decline in view of the reduced duty structure remained unexplainable and required further investigation.

According to the report, the negative growth in CED collection from cigarettes, which was another major revenue spinner was due to excess supply in the first quarter of the current financial year.

This situation has improved in the second quarter as half year CED collection from the same commodity showed a growth of 3.2 per cent over the corresponding period of last year.

The report, however, says that the desired projection target could not be achieved due to increasing inflow of low and medium brands of cigarettes from neighbouring markets and some reports of losing market due to increase in prices of domestic brands at the time of budget.

The report says that all the five major revenue spinners of CED with exception of cement, which recorded growth in revenue during the first half of current fiscal year and POL products, which recorded a negative growth in CED collection during the same period this year over the corresponding period of last year, the performance of other major CED heads have been mixed.

According to the report, the collection from cement has increased by 13.1 per cent due to 11.73 per cent increase in production during July-November period and the CED collection from POL products has declined by 23.5 per cent due to transfer of these products to customs duty net.