ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs 753 billion during first Quarter (July-September) Financial Year FY2017-18 against the preferred target of Rs 778 billion.
“The FBR’s provisional tax collection stands at Rs 753 billion during the first quarter of the FY17-18 and it is expected that the collection will further go up by few billion rupees when the revenue collection figures will be finalized within the first two weeks of upcoming month,” said sources.
The sources told CT that the FBR’s target for first quarter stood at 19.6 % of total fixed target of Rs4013billion and hoped that there would be no much difference between the actual collection and envisaged target.
Chairman Tariq Pasha pointed out in his informal conversation at the Parliament House that the number of return-filers was three times more this year than the same period of last tax year.
However the official sources said that the FBR’s provisional collection fetched Rs 305 billion in September 2017. Its collection stood at Rs over Rs 448 billion during first two months (July-August) of 2017-18 against Rs 371 billion in the same period of 2016-17, reflecting an increase of Rs 77 billion.
The revenue collection in August 2017 stood at Rs237billion and collection in July 2017 was Rs 211billion. Overall the FBR has crossed Rs448billion during the first two months (July-August) of 2017-18.
The revenue collection for September 2017 showed that the collection is gaining momentum, but the FBR would have to make concerted efforts for achieving its desired annual target of Rs4013billion for the ongoing fiscal year.
The FBR will have to collect Rs3260billion in remaining nine months (Oct-June) period of the current fiscal in order to materialize the fixed target of Rs4013billion for the ongoing financial year.
For achieving this huge target requires effective enforcement and broadening of narrowed tax base in weeks and months ahead and the FBR established special zones with the assigned task to get the desired results. But intentions are not enough for realizing dreams into reality and FBR’s top bosses will have to deliver in an electioneering year when there will be more pressures from political masters as well as changing of minister in-charge because of installation of caretaker setup ahead of upcoming general elections anytime in the next few months.
