PESHAWAR: After missing the tax collection target, the country’s budget deficit had been recorded at Rs1.86trillion during the last financial year by a wide margin.
The government had also missed the non-tax revenue collection target during Fiscal Year 2016-17 mainly due to the non-reimbursement of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) from the United States.
Sources at the RTO Peshawar told Customs Today that the government had budgeted non-tax revenue collection target at Rs959.5billion for the previous year. However, the government had generated Rs901billion under the non-tax revenue collection making a shortfall of around Rs58billion. Similarly, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had also missed the tax collection target by Rs260billion as it received Rs3362billion during the year 2016-17.
The country’s expenditures were recorded at Rs6.8trillion (21.3 percent of the GDP) compared to revenues of Rs4.9trillion (15.5 percent of the GDP) taking the deficit to Rs1.86trillion (5.8 percent of the GDP), according to the documents of the Ministry of Finance.
In non-tax revenue collection, Pakistan had got only Rs67.7billion as defence receipts (CSF) from the US as against the original estimates of Rs170.75billion during the last fiscal year. The government’s revenue from the share of surplus profit of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had also reduced to Rs227.8billion from Rs280billion estimated in the budget of the previous year.
According to the documents of the Ministry of Finance, the government collected Rs99.7billion as mark-up on public sector entities, Rs69.7billion as dividend, Rs20.1billion as passport fee and Rs9.1billion as discount remained on crude oil, Rs53billion as royalties on gas and oil, Rs1.64billion as windfall levy against crude oil and Rs305.7billion through other sources.
The documents showed that Pakistan’s tax to GDP had increased to 12.45 percent during the fiscal year 2016-17. Collection of taxes by federal and provincial authorities increased to Rs3969billion during the last fiscal year. Meanwhile, the federal government’s tax collection rose eight percent to Rs3647billion during the previous fiscal year 2016-17.
According to the documents, the FBR had missed the tax collection target by Rs260billion as they collected Rs3361billion as against the target of Rs3621billion for the last financial year. The last year’s collection was, however, eight percent higher than Rs3112billion generated during 2015-16.
