The Regional Tax Office here has collected Rs 31.5 billion in the 2007-08 financial year under all taxes as compared to last year's figure of Rs 25.56 billion, which is Rs 5,935 million more, showing an increase of 23 percent. RTO Director General Khwaja Shaukat Ali told a press conference on Tuesday that the RTO met its target fixed for the 2007-08 fiscal year.
He said Rs 42 million were collected as out of current demand as compared to Rs 18 million during the last year, registering a substantial increase of 133 percent. Likewise, collection under the advance tax posted a tremendous increase of 187 percent as the collection under this head stood at Rs 2,333 million as compared to Rs 813 million for the last year.
Collection under section 149 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 (which pertains to salary) rose from Rs 2,425 million to Rs 3,389 million, showing an increase of 40 per cent, he added.
He further stated that there was an increase of 31 percent in respect of collection under dividends under section 150 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, amounting to Rs 650 million as against Rs 498 million last year. Collection under section 155 (rental) rose from Rs 59 million to Rs 111 million, showing an increase of 88 per cent.
Besides, the RTO collected Rs 1,250 million on cash withdrawal under Section 231A, introduced through Finance Act 2005. The tax collection rose by 18 percent from Rs 1,063 million in 2007.
Collection under Section 234 (transport) almost doubled this year since the department collected Rs 132 million to Rs 242 million, showing an increase of 83 percent. Under wealth tax, the collection showed an increase of 129 percent from Rs 14 million in the previous year to Rs 32 million this year.
Under withholding tax, the department collected Rs 27,985 million during 2007-08 as compared to Rs 23,302 million during last year, showing an increase of 20 percent. Khwaja Shaukat Ali said during 2007-08, the department received 359,212 returns till June 2008 as against 308,542 returns in the same period of last year, indicating an increase of 50,670 returns.
While at refund side, the department received 10, 207 applications, out of which refund was issued in 5,876 cases involving Rs 1,479.775 million. The balance pending refund applications stands at 4,331 involving a refund of Rs 555.416 million.
He said the government had introduced two amnesty schemes this year under which anybody could pay two percent of the value of any untaxed movable or immovable property and another called arrears settlement incentive under which a taxpayer could pay the principal amount without any additional penalty or tax.
The taxpayer would also get a 10 percent reduction on the overall tax, he said, and added the taxpayer could also deposit the amount in three instalments but had to pay a five percent additional tax.
He said he hoped the tax amnesty scheme, introduced in 80s, fetched around Rs 12 billion and the new scheme, having a very low tax rate, would bring more than that. He said ascertaining the size of informal economy was difficult, but according to rough estimates, it was 50 percent of the formal economy.
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