LAHORE: Additional Secretary Excise and Taxation Department Punjab Imran Aslam revealed that it is too hard to achieve the targets of tax collection in the current fiscal year. Revenue collection targets are not even possible to meet, he said.
Talking to Customs today, Imran Aslam said that targets set in the budget of 2014-15 are tough so it is not easy to achieve these targets but department is trying its level best to chase the targets. Imran said that excise officials are working hard on all projects of levy to get as much as possible before the time. Number of Taxes collection is not up to the mark but in coming 5 months department will make it possible to have all in hand.
He added that in coming days number of vehicle registration will increase that will help the department to overcome the deficit of Motor Vehicle tax. Government in the budget set a target of 11.87 billion Rupees for motor branch Punjab to collect in the Fiscal Year which is not achieved till now. He argued that basic reason behind low Revenue collection of motor vehicle taxes is Federal Board of Revenue which has imposed too heavy taxes on registration and transfers of the vehicles. Big levy on new registration and transfers has created shortfall for excise. These heavy taxes are a big setback for the department and citizens are getting late to pay their Token Taxes even because they want to pay it after registering them in active Tax payer list of FBR. Active Tax Payer List is available on FBR website. Citizens register themselves as filers and havel to wait for minimum 15 days to get their name in active tax payer list of FBR. Excise and Taxation department has informed the Federal government and Federal Board of Revenue about reservations on these Taxes.
Collection of Taxes is not as per target even number of registration of vehicles has increased as compared to the previous years. Rawalpindi division has registered 139,048 vehicles in first quarter of the Fiscal Year of 2014-15. Lahore 400,151, Multan 202,537, Sahiwal 64,087, Sargodha 92,207 Bahawalpur 151,040 and Faisalabad, Gujranwala D.G Khan has registered 286,895 vehicles in the first quarter of the Fiscal Year 2014-15. He said number of people like to drive their vehicles on open letter which is a setback for the department.
Imran Aslam shared with Customs Today that Excise has collected almost 65 percent of property tax in 6 and half months which is satisfactory as it is 36 percent extra than the last year. Property tax is back bone of the department which is providing 8 to 9 billion Rs to Provincial Government every year. He said Department is paying full attention in this regard and is facilitating the tax payers as well. This year department will get more property tax than the target.
Cotton Fee in coming days will increase the revenue of the Excise as it is expected that a good crop is coming in next 3 months. This year, a good crop of Cotton is expected in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Raheem Yar Khan, Khaniwal and Bahawalpur areas, which is a big source of Revenue for the department. He said a good crop of cotton means good Revenue for Excise. Excise is expected to achieve the targets of excise duty, Cotton Fee, education and Professional Tax but other levy like Luxury tax, Motor vehicle tax and entertainment duty are not possible to achieve. Hotel tax has already defunct by the Government.
Imran Aslam praised Customs Today that such kind of newspaper is very helpful in our community as it is spreading awareness among the people. Only awareness about importance of taxes in country can increase tax collection.