ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Tariq Bajwa asked Chief Commissioners of Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) to take steps on war footing to achieve the revised revenue collection target of Rs775 billion for last quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal year.
According to details, the issue of achieving revised revenue collection target of Rs2,345 billion was also discussed during the Annual Chief Commissioners Conference held at FBR House. FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa informed the Chief Commissioners that the tax machinery must focus on key areas to ensure collection of the revised target during the last quarter of 2013-14.
The revised revenue collection target for April 2014 is Rs196.3 billion, May 2014 Rs219.5 billion and revised revenue collection target for June 2014 is Rs359.2 billion. Total revenue collection target was Rs775 billion for the last quarter of current fiscal year. Keeping in view the assigned targets of Rs196.3 billion, Rs219.5 billion and Rs359.2 billion for May-June 2013-14, it is a challenging task to achieve the targets.
The target for March 2014 was also discussed during the conference and tax authorities directed the field formations to meet target of Rs 215.8 billion set for the current month. So far, the FBR has collected Rs1,360.5 billion during July-February 2013-14 as compared to Rs1,161.9 billion, reflecting an increase of 17.1 percent. In February 2014, tax collection stood at Rs163.2 billion against Rs140.2 billion in the corresponding period of 2013, showing an increase of 16.4 percent.
The tax collection target of Rs2,475 billion for 2013-14 has been reportedly revised downward to Rs2,345 billion due to low collection of customs duty and federal excise duty (FED). Out of the four components of the federal taxes i.e direct taxes, sales tax, customs and federal excise, the growth in the customs and federal excise was comparatively low.
The main reason for the low growth in customs is attributed to decreasing trend of dutiable imports vis-à-vis duty-free imports. Low growth in federal excise was mainly due to low realisation from cigarette manufacturing and discontinuation of collection from telecom sector in the backdrop of imposition of sales tax by the provinces.
