LAHORE: Ministry of Finance has clarified a news item that appeared in a section of the press that Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has ‘admitted failure’ in achieving budgeted revenue collection of Rs 2,475 billion for the current fiscal year and revised it to Rs 2,345 billion.
The Ministry of Finance, clarified that the Federal Board of Revenue receipts were estimated as Rs 2,475 billion for the current year, which are based on revised projected receipts of Rs 2,050 billion for last fiscal year.
FBR collected Rs 1,946 billion in the last fiscal year instead of the target of Rs 2,050 billion so the base effect resulted into shortfall. The FBR has achieved over 17% growth in revenue collection against a growth of 3% in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
The press release stated that Finance Minister has always stated that Rs 115 billion has been allocated as lump sum to PSDP which are contingent upon budgeted receipts of FBR. This amount were not allocated to any project and, therefore, question of slashing PSDP from Rs 540 billion to Rs 425 billion does not arise, it said. It added that the provinces are already aware of this development.
