LAHORE: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected customs duty of Rs204 billion during four months of financial year 2020-21 as against collection of Rs208 billion collected in the same period of last fiscal year, showing a decline of 2%. But the collection was Rs21 billion higher than the target.
The customs duty collection has been impacted by the reduction in imports and the government’s decision to exempt over 1,600 tariff lines from the duty.
However, it has imposed additional customs duty to recoup some of the losses.
A low collection is one of the key reasons behind soaring public debt.
A brief report by the Policy Research Institute of Market Economy (PRIME) has again warned about the debt sustainability of the country.
The report stated that when the incumbent government came to power the country was heavily indebted. One of the electoral promises was to reduce the debt burden.
But over the course of two years, Pakistan’s foreign debt and liabilities have increased from $95.2 billion to $112.8 billion, an addition of $17.6 billion or 18.5%.
The tax-wise collection details showed that the collection was more skewed towards indirect taxes.
The share of income tax in total tax collection further shrank to 35 percent and the government is burdening the economy and people with more indirect taxes.
Of Rs1.33 trillion, the income tax collection was just Rs466 billion.
The FBR has missed the income tax collection target by Rs41 billion for the first four months of the fiscal year.
However, the income tax collection was still better by about 4% as compared to Rs452 billion collected last year.
Sales tax collection stood at Rs582 billion against receipt of Rs546 billion in the same period of last fiscal year, showing a growth of 6.6%. The sales tax target was Rs546 billion that the FBR has surpassed.
It also gave roughly Rs60 billion sales tax refunds from its collection, which greased the businesses.
The four-month federal excise duty collection amounted to Rs81 billion, up by Rs12 billion.
