KARACHI, March 20: Appreciating the working of Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU), the vice president of the World Bank (WB) Mieko Nishimizu during a visit to LTU on Thursday assured continued support to restructuring and tax reforms programme of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR).

The LTU, Karachi is a pilot project run by CBR with the World Bank funding and in order to oversee the progress and commitment of the CBR in the area of restructuring of tax administration Mieko Nishimizu visited the unit.

The vice president of the World Bank was impressed by progress and achievements made by the LTU in last eight months, and assured continued support of Work Bank in reforms and tax administration of the CBR.

The Large Taxpayers Unit, Karachi and Medium Taxpayers Unit (MIU), Lahore are the first projects undertaken by CBR in its bid to bring in major structural and procedural reforms in the administration of federal taxes.

Briefing the guest about the progress and achievements made by the unit the director general of LTU, Akhtar Jamil Khan said that sales tax collection has increased by 54 per cent, central excise duty rose by 12 per cent and income tax collection by 9 per cent over the corresponding period of eight months of last fiscal.

All matters relating to establishment, procedures and human resource development of LTU came under discussion during extensive session of two hours with the vice president of the WB. The officers of LTU expressed their belief in the reforms and gave their suggestions to accelerate the process with a view to expanding it across the country.

Presently, the focus of reforms is towards income tax as sales tax was revamped on functional lines in 1996. Under the LTU the income tax is also being collected and administrated on functional basis. With the assistance of the World Bank the government plans to create more units like the LTU. The next LTU at Lahore is proposed to commence functioning by July 1, 2004.

Accompanied by high ranking officials of IMF and World Bank, Meiko Nishimizu was also given briefing on Customs Administration Reforms (CARE) which is expected to run on pilot basis at the Karachi International Cargo Terminal (KICT) from September this year. With these reforms the customs administration would be able to clear the cargo within 24 hours against the present time of around eight days.

The CARE would not only facilitate the importers in early clearance of imported cargo, the vice president of the world bank was told, but it would also enhance the efficiency of customs department, which may render around one-third of the present staff redundant. Under CARE, the customs will work for 24 hours 7 days a week. Presently they work eight hours a day, 6-days a week.

Mieko Nishimizu, is a senior decision maker of the World Bank and a spokesperson on programmes in Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives.