Expanding the scope of its enforcement activities, Regional Tax Office, Islamabad Wednesday constituted special market committees with the assistance of trade associations and Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) to maximize registration within the jurisdiction of the federal capital, particularly of cottage industries, retailers comprising big shopping malls and chain stores/shops, and other businesses.

According to the latest data of RTO Islamabad activities, the officers of the RTO Islamabad are fully geared to not only achieve but also to surpass the assigned revenue targets for the current year, once the condition of CNIC is enforced for points of sale (POS) for Tier-1 retailers comprising big shopping malls, chain stores and shops with covered area of 1,000 sq feet. The RTO also hopes to register more taxpayers with the help of trade associations for which Special Market Committees have been constituted. Similarly the help of ICCI is being sought to register various cottage industries like brick kiln, marble industries, etc.

Data revealed that the RTO Islamabad has recorded substantial and satisfactory improvement in domestic collection (ie, Income Tax, Sales Tax and Federal Excise Duty) depicting overall 29% net growth by collecting Rs 45,101 million Inland Revenue Service (IRS) related taxes during the first five months of current fiscal year 2019-20 as compared to the collection of Rs 34,873 million made during the corresponding period for the last year.

According to data, the collection of sales tax stood at Rs 12,045 million up to November 2019, showing an increase of 68 percent as compared to Rs 7,174 million for the corresponding period of the last year. Similarly Income Tax up to 30th November 2019 was recorded at Rs 32,250 million which is 20 percent higher with incredible increase of Rs 5,327 million than the collection of Rs 26,923 million for the corresponding period of the last year. Federal Excise Duty (FED) collection went up by 4 percent and was recorded at Rs 806 million as compared to collection of Rs 776 million for the last year's corresponding period. The increase has been recorded in spite of the relief allowed to airline passengers in the form of reduction in FED during the budget 2018-19. The aforesaid growth in domestic revenue collection was achieved by the Regional Tax Office, Islamabad, with diligent administrative steps and effective monitoring efforts for raising revenue collection strictly in compliance with the various policy measures adopted by the government.