KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs2.21 billion withholding tax (WHT) through non-cash banking transactions during the first quarter (July-September) of FY19, recording a decrease of 14%.
The Board registered Rs2.56 billion withholding tax collection in the corresponding period of FY18s.
According to sources in the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the fall in collection was due to measures were taken by the government to encourage declaration of assets and filing of yearly returns.
The latest weekly updated list of active taxpayers list (ATL) revealed that the number of return filers rose to approximately 1.66 million, which stood at 0.87 million in 2013.
Although the fall in tax collection was reflective of improvement in conformity, it also raises obstacles for the tax machinery already beleaguered to increase revenue collection.
For the tax collection machinery, the challenges have been persistent and continuing in attaining a desirable revenue collection target.
They faced a revenue deficit of over Rs60 billion during the first four months (July-October) of FY19. The FBR was able to amass Rs1.106 trillion during the above-mentioned quarter against a target of Rs1.166 trillion.
Also, the government faces a huge challenge to amass Rs4.4 trillion in revenue during FY19 and to rein budget deficit at 5.1% against the previous target of 4.9% and compared to 6.6% attained in FY18.
