It collected revenue of Rs 210.96 billion over the first 11 months of 2011/12, recording 20 percent growth over collections in the same period last year which is close to the targeted growth.[break]
“Though the performance in the initial months remained poor, the growth rate finally jumped to the level we were targeting to achieve. Now we are pretty sure that we will be able to meet the target set for this fiscal year,” said Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota.
Despite improvement in situation, the collection, however, is still short of the target for the period by Rs 960 million. “This shortfall means we need to collect Rs 30.81 billion in the final month of the fiscal year. But we are confident of achieving it,” stated Baskota.
MoF officials attributed the dramatic improvement in collections to special efforts by the ministry to control revenue leakages at customs, mobilization of flying squads and lately intensified market vigilance. Thanks to those efforts, Baskota said the ministry by the end of mid-June, which is the 11 month of the fiscal year, managed to record collections well above the target in case of VAT, income tax and customs duty.
According to the MoF data, the government collected Rs 64.78 billion in VAT as of mid-June, which exceeded the target by 1.6 percent. Collections of income tax, which was recorded at Rs 41.97 billion by mid-June, was more than the target set for the 11 months by 4.5 percent. Likewise, collections of customs revenue too exceeded the target by 3.8 percent and touched Rs 38.47 billion.
However, it continued to lag behind on collections from excise duty, registration fee and non-tax sources of revenue.
According to MoF, it collected Rs 26.71 billion from excise duty, Rs 3.58 billion from registration fees, Rs 3.49 billion from vehicles tax and Rs 31.98 billion from non-tax revenue sources.
Diversifying Government Revenue