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KARACHI: The Sindh government collected Rs225 million in professional tax during the eight months through February, a year-on-year growth of six per cent.
The number of commercial units paying professional tax in Karachi increased by 2,944, or 0.8pc, to 373,529 as compared to a year earlier.
The excise and taxation department collected Rs5.5m in arrears from private limited companies, who pay a minimum tax of Rs100,000 a year.
The department rejected a request made by the management of an airline which argued that it would not pay the tax in Karachi as it was paying the same tax from its head office in Islamabad.
Moreover, the excise and taxation department is considering seeking help from law enforcement agencies to recover tax worth millions of rupees from city’s major markets such as Tariq Road, Landhi and Ibrahim Hyderi.
Tax officials say shopkeepers in these markets do not entertain tax challans and notices and threaten the tax staff who visits their shops to recover tax.
The tax staff is also said to face resistance in recovering professional tax in Karachi’s district central, where the number of units — mostly shops — that must pay the tax is over 18,000.
Shopkeepers in the area complain of double taxation as they are also required to pay trade licence fee to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
An official said the KMC staff employed harsh measures for recovering the trade licence fee, whereas the excise department avoided using force to recover professional tax which is Rs500 per shop.
The professional tax challans are issued every year in July, but a two months’ grace is given to taxpayers and therefore recovery starts from September.
The number of commercial units liable to pay professional tax in city’s district east is 25,000. However, the department is suffering revenue loss as major markets and malls in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Shah Faisal Colony do not pay tax to the Sindh government as they fall in cantonment board.
The tax collection from these areas could be Rs150m against Rs120m now if the tax is recovered from all these markets.
The number of businesses and commercial units paying professional tax in the district west is 24,000. Of them, 1,900 are industries and 5,000 commercial units, mostly godowns.
The number of salaried people paying professional tax is 72,000, including government and private employees. The tax is deducted at source from their salaries.
Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2017
