According to provisional figures released here on Thursday, the tax managers were confident of more revenue collection after compilation of final figures in the next 10 days.
The collection of Rs 351.7 billion up to March 31, 2004 registered an improvement of 13.4 percent as compared to the last year's collection.
The provisional collection in March 2004 was Rs 38.3 billion, which is equal to the final collection of March 2003.
The final revenue collection up to February 2004 was Rs 312 billion.
The tax-wise break-up in March 2004 shows that Rs 15.1 billion was collected as sales tax, Rs 11 billion as income tax, Rs 8.1 billion as customs duty and Rs 4.1 billion was collected as central excise duty (CED).
The CBR has to collect Rs 52.76 billion per month in the remaining three months of the current fiscal year to meet the annual target.
A very positive change has been witnessed in the CBR during the last few years as the tax agency has not only achieved targets, but also surpassed them.
Speedy implementation of ongoing reforms in CBR will further improve the tax collection by facilitating ordinary taxpayers.
The new Chairman of CBR Abdullah Yusuf is determined to make the tax policy investor-friendly as the investment could not come to any country or growth rates could not be achieved unless the investor was confident of getting reasonable rate of return.
Pakistan's revenues crossed Rs 10 billion mark in 1974-75 and Rs 100 billion in 1989-90. The target for 2003-04 is Rs 510 billion, showing the quantum jump on the part of collections and widening of the tax net.