ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has failed to achieve the monthly and first-quarter revenue collection targets mainly owing to devastating floods in the country.
The Board missed the first-quarter tax collection target by Rs20 billion, which has also raised the question about achieving of annual target of Rs2.81 trillion.
As per details, FBR collected Rs549billion from July to September, missing the target of Rs569 billion. However, FBR managed to achieve 14 per cent growth as the target of the same corresponding period of last fiscal year was Rs481 billion.
The annual revenue target of Rs2.81 trillion requires 24 per cent growth over last fiscal year’s collection of Rs2.266 trillion. Sources said that tough target was set under the pressure of International Monetary Fund (IMF), as FBR Chief Tariq Bajwa suggested restricting the figure to Rs2.71 trillion.
Meanwhile, the Board also missed the monthly target of tax collection in September as it collected Rs230 billion during the said month against the target of Rs234 billion. However, FBR officials claim to recover in next couple of days. “Tax collection has been disturbed by the floods in the country, which slowed down the economic activities,” they added.
According to FBR spokesperson, the Board has collected Rs230 billion in September which is Rs28 billion more than it collected during the corresponding month of the previous year, showing a growth of 14 per cent. Sources said that the government may review the tax collection target due to the devastating floods in different parts of the country.
