ISLAMABAD: The ancillary departments of the Chief Commissioner Office here have collected revenue of Rs1.89 billion in July 2019, which is around three times more than the collection for the same month in previous years.

“It is not that the revenue has increased due to hike in taxation. It happened just because we improved the collection mechanism by increasing the number of collection points and ensured that every person paying his taxes and dues would be facilitated,” Islamabad Chief Commissioner Amer Ali Ahmed said while talking to Dawn.

He said that in the past all the ancillary departments used to collect a little over Rs2 billion a year. “This time, we have set the target at Rs4 billion, but we are hopeful to collect over Rs8 billion in revenues during financial year 2019-20. Moreover, we are going to introduce a facility for the people to be able to pay their vehicle tax through banks rather than depositing the same with the Excise and Taxation Office,” he said.

According to a district administration’s document available with Dawn, the Islamabad administration collected revenue of Rs556 million in July 2017 and Rs669 million in July 2018. However, over Rs1.89 billion was collected during July 2019.

Chief commissioner says target achieved by improving collection mechanism

The record of Federal Treasury Office (FTO) accounts shows that an amount of Rs301 million was collected under the head of vehicle registration fee in July 2018, which rose to Rs283 million in July this year.

Also, a huge increase was witnessed in revenue collection in terms of token tax. The document shows that only Rs39 million was collected in terms of token tax in July 2018, but in July 2019 collection of the same tax stood at Rs775 million.

It revealed that Rs72,383 was collected as hotel tax in July 2018, which shot up almost 326 times to Rs236 million in July this year. Professional tax, which is collected from registered organisations and companies, stood at Rs69 million in July 2018 and it surged to Rs282 million in July this year.

The district administration’s document shows that the income tax collection, which is deposited in the FBR Accounts, stood at Rs180 million in July 2019 as against Rs77 million in July 2018. The collection of Advanced Tax was calculated at Rs236 million in July 2018, which increased to Rs593 million in July this year.

An amount of Rs29.10 million was collected as Road Tax in July 2017, Rs39.25 million in July 2018 and Rs775 million in July 2019.

Likewise, Rs3,137 was collected as Education Cess during July 2019 and Rs6,514 and Rs3,250 in the same month in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Furthermore, the capital administration collected Rs93,750 as tax under the head of Real Estate/Motor Vehicle Dealer Licence in July 2019 against Rs141,800 and Rs75,850 in July 2018 and 2017, respectively. It also collected over Rs19 million from hotels as bed tax.

Spokesman for the Capital Administration Noman Nazim stated that a team of Excise Department, headed by Director Excise Bilal Azam, carried out surprise checking at the Serena Hotel, Marriott Hotel and Ramada Hotel for recovery of bed tax.

He said that around Rs10 million had been recovered from Serena, Rs7.5 million from Marriott and Rs2.4 million from Ramada for July 2019.

An official of the district administration, requesting not to be named, said that though there was a proposal to announce performance-based incentives for collection of tax, the management did not agree with the suggestion.

He said that the tax collection was improved as they had imposed fixed tax on hotels, companies and others organisations.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2019