Kathmandu, October 26 Revenue collection has exceeded the set target by Rs 12.26 billion in the first quarter of this fiscal, as tax collection under major tax headings surpassed the expected level. The revenue collection data of the first quarter unveiled by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) today shows the government has collected Rs 127.04 billion in revenue against the target of Rs 114.78 billion for the first quarter. Tax collection under major tax contributors — value added tax (VAT), customs tariff, excise, income tax — was encouraging in the review period. The MoF also reviewed the revenue collection progress of first quarter today. In the review programme held at the MoF, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara said the revenue collection progress is satisfactory, but the that government’s spending in development works is very low. He instructed the civil servants to apply all the means to control revenue leakages and work in coordination with related departments under the MoF. Revenue collection in the first three months was largely backed by the import growth because 44 per cent of the total revenue is collected at the customs points in the form of customs duty, VAT, excise and others. Import surged by 70.7 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal when compared to the corresponding period of previous fiscal. The country imported goods worth Rs 220.62 billion in the first three months of this fiscal. In the review period, the government collected Rs 37.75 billion from VAT, Rs 27.57 billion from customs tariff against the target of Rs 37.43 billion and Rs 23.04 billion, respectively. Customs tariff was the second largest contributor as the government started imposing infrastructure tariff in import of petroleum products to build the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project and the tax is being collected at the border points. Collection under infrastructure tax stood at Rs 1.78 billion in the review period. The government collected Rs 21.8 billion under excise and Rs 17.17 billion from income tax against target of Rs 17.81 billion and Rs 15.67 billion, respectively. Education service tax, health service tax and vehicle tax missed target slightly. However, registration fees collection stood at Rs 4.48 billion against target of Rs 2.25 billion. Registration fees are collected from the Land Revenue Offices, which shows gradual revival of real estate business that had been shattered by the earthquake. The government also missed collection target of Rs 13.27 billion under non-tax heading and generated Rs 12.82 billion from non-tax revenue sources.