ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is facing huge shortfall of over Rs155 billion in revenue collection during first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year 2016-17.
According to FBR spokesperson Dr Muhammad Iqbal, the revenue authority has provisionally collected Rs1458 billion during the corresponding period as against the target of Rs1,615 billion, making shortfall of Rs153 billion.
The FBR collected Rs375 billion in the month of December against the target of Rs392 billion, said Dr Muhammad Iqbal.
The government had fixed tax collection target at Rs3621 billion for the present financial year (July 2016 to June 2017). The FBR will need another Rs 2,163 billion in the remaining period to achieve the said target.
FBR chairman Nisar Mohammad Khan had already admitted that tax collection target is unrealistic. During Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, he said that revenue collection target of Rs3.62 trillion was high and seemingly unrealistic.
In order to bridge the shortfall, the FBR took advance taxes worth over Rs30 billion in December from commercial banks and the oil and gas sector companies, the sources said. However, the FBR has estimated to collect Rs575.8 billion from the petroleum products during the current fiscal year.
