LAHORE - Owing to lethargic and incompetent management, the excise and taxation department Punjab has lost Rs 4 billion revenue target set for 2007-08 forcing the Punjab government to cut the target to save the department from earning bad repute. The excise and taxation department Punjab has forwarded an official request to the Punjab government in this regard admitting that as the department could not succeed in fulfilling the mark, so slice in the target is dire need of the situation. The excise and taxation department had fixed June 31 as deadline appealing the people to submit their outstanding dues under different heads to achieve the revenue target but the deadline went unnoticed. The department had to set another deadline on August 31. Despite the fact that four days are left to end the deadline, only 8 per cent revenue has been collected so far. Getting disgruntled over the disheartening situation, the department has decided to transfer more than 25 excise and taxation officers (ETOs) and assistant excise district officers (AEDOs) to other districts. The sources disclosed that all the inspectors had already been issued two warnings to perform up to mark in current year. Sources revealed that Minister for Excise and Taxation Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman and Secretary Excise Hassan Nawaz Tarar had held a joint meeting to review the situation. "They also ordered that those failing to meet the revenue target would be penalised while successors would be given cash awards," they added. The sources informed that Director General of Excise and Taxation Department Punjab, Anwar Rashid was also holding meetings with traders with a view to make maximum increase in the ratio of professional tax. The sources further disclosed that Region A collected Rs 130 million, Region B collected Rs 80 million and Region C collected Rs 30 million in the city so far. The E&T department had set Rs 1.82 billion as target for Region A, Rs 1.13 billion under the head of property tax, Rs 520 million under the head of excise tax, Rs 150 million set as professional tax. The department had also fixed Rs 17 million as property tax in Zone I, Rs 1 million in Zone II, Rs 220 million in Zone III, Rs 180 million in Zone 4, Rs 240 million in Zone 10, Rs 140 million in Zone 11 and Rs 130 million in Zone 12.