ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs 1,836 billion revenue from the start of ongoing fiscal year up to March 7, witnessing an increase of 19 per cent over Rs 1,547 billion it collected during the same period of last year.
According to breakup figures, an amount of Rs 708 billion has been collected in the head of income tax, which witnessed an increase of 17 percent as compared to the collection of Rs 605 billion during the corresponding period of last year.
Similarly, the collection of sales tax witnessed increase of 16 percent during the period under review by going up from Rs 712 billion last year to Rs 826 during the current year up to March 7, the sources said.
Likewise, the customs duty collections during the period were recorded at Rs 244 billion, as compared to the collection of Rs 183 billion, showing positive growth of 31 percent during the current year. The federal excise collection has also increased by 4 percent by going up from Rs.97 billion last year to Rs.101 billion during the current year, the sources said.
An official in the board said that the overall tax collection has increased when compared to the last year, and expressed the hope that the tax collection target fixed for the current fiscal year would be materialised.
The government, he said, has also made the tax filing system easy for the tax-filers adding that now onward the National Identity Card has been made the National Tax Number (NTN) for the individual tax filers. However, for companies, the FBR would be providing the NTN number to facilitate timely filing and collection of taxes.
The sources, while talking about the decrease in petroleum prices, said that it would not have any impact on the overall tax collection as the government has fixed tax according to per litter of oil and not on the cost of the oil.
