ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has so far collected Rs4.17 trillion in taxes, leaving it with a gigantic task of pooling an unprecedented Rs790 billion in the last month of current fiscal year to achieve the annual target.
During the July-May period of the outgoing fiscal year, the FBR’s tax collection increased at a pace of 17.4% on a low base in the last quarter of the previous fiscal year. However, some key indicators like share of direct taxes in the total taxes and effective tax rate against the import value have deteriorated, showed the official statistics.
Provisional results for July-May showed that the FBR collected Rs4.167 trillion – up by Rs618 billion or 17.4%. The collection fell short by Rs61 billion against the original target of Rs4.22 trillion set at the start of the fiscal year.
The FBR has crossed the Rs4-trillion collection mark in its fourth attempt, including two made earlier during the tenure of the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan. As per FBR’s own plan, the Rs4-trillion mark should have been crossed in May 2018 – two months before the PTI came into power.
The FBR now needs to collect Rs790 billion in June at a growth rate of 71% to achieve the annual target that became the base for setting the other budgetary targets and the share of provinces in the National Finance Commission.
During April-June period of the last fiscal year, the economy had come to a standstill due to restrictions imposed to stop the spread of Covid-19. This caused negative 16% growth in the last fiscal year, which is now helping the FBR attain double-digit growth in this fiscal year.
