ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue has recorded a huge revenue shortfall of Rs80-85 billion in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year 2013-14. FBR has collected Rs1,020 billion against the set target of Rs1,100 billion.
FBR Official Spokesman Shahid Hussain Asad said that the tax collection recorded a growth of 17 percent over the same period of the last fiscal year by collecting Rs1,020 billion. “We expect that the revenue collection will go up by more than Rs10 billion in days ahead as online system of some banks was down during last 2-3 days,” he added.
He ruled out any possibility of granting further extension in deadline of filing returns by the corporate sector and said that FBR directed the field commissioners to tackle individual cases and facilitate the taxpayers.
He said the FBR received around 11,000 corporate sector returns so far but the final figure on this front would be unveiled in next few days. According to provisional revenue collection figures compiled by FBR, the Board collected Rs1.02 trillion taxes from July to December period of this financial year as against the target of Rs1.10 trillion.
FBR paid Rs35 billion in refunds to the taxpayers in the first half of the fiscal year, according to the FBR officials. FBR collected Rs375 billion in income tax in the first half of the fiscal year, which was only 37% of the total collection, underscoring increasing dependency on indirect taxation, which is regressive in nature. The sales tax collection in the first half stood at Rs462 billion as against the IMF’s expectation of Rs431 billion. An increase of 1% in the rate of general sales tax remained the main reason behind increase in collection but yet it was lower than the target as the government had increased its rate from 16 to 17 percent in the budget. The collection on account of customs duties stood at Rs112 billion.
