The tax-wise collection revealed that the direct taxes collection stood at Rs 72.3 billion during July-December 2004-05 against Rs 57.6 billion collected during the corresponding period of the last fiscal. The direct tax collection is expected to show more increase as December 31, 2004 is the last date of filing corporate tax returns.
He said that the sales tax collection during the first two quarters of the current fiscal reached Rs 107.3 billion as compared to Rs 99.1 billion collected during the same period of the last financial year, reflecting a growth of 8.3 percent.
This growth has been largely driven by the sales tax on imports where Rs 68.6 billion has been collected during July-December 2004-05 against Rs 50.7 billion collected in the same period of the last fiscal.
The tax manager was optimistic that the collection of sales tax from 10 major domestic commodities is likely to increase till the compilation of the final figures.
The collection of customs duty was Rs 50.7 billion in July-December 2004-05 against Rs 39.6 billion in the same period of the last fiscal, showing an extraordinary increase of 28 percent. Similarly, the collection of central excise duty (CED) was Rs 22.7 billion in the first half of the current fiscal, showing an increase of 20.7 percent as compared to the last years' collection.
The collection in December 2004 stood at Rs 47.8 billion. According to the monthly break-up, the collection of sales tax was Rs 18 billion; customs duty, Rs 10.1 billion; direct taxes, Rs 16.2 billion and collection of central excise duty was Rs 3.5 billion.