Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) fell nearly 17.57 percent or Rs 103 billion short of its target for month of April due to a sharp fall in imports as well as poor performance in sales tax collection, it revealed on Tuesday. This is done in the statistics released daily.
According to the data released by the Federal Board of Revenue, revenue collection in April stood at Rs 483 billion against the target of Rs 586 billion. Due to the below target collection, it will be a tough task for the field formations of FBRF to make a big recovery to achieve the annual target in May-June.
According to the data, there was no increase in the April collection compared to last year’s Rs 483 billion. In the next few days, when the book adjustment is done, it is expected that a few billion more rupees will come to the government.
In the month of April, the shortfall increased to Rs 381 billion due to a shortfall in revenue collection. The target set for the first ten months of the current fiscal was Rs 6.019 trillion, while the revenue received so far is Rs 5.638 trillion. Despite the decline, tax collections have increased by 15.67 percent compared to the previous fiscal year.
According to FBR data, the shortfall has increased to Rs 381 billion in July-April. This growth rate is much lower than what the government had agreed with the IMF. The government had set a revenue target of Rs 7.47 trillion for the current financial year.
On February 14, FBR increased the sales tax rate from 17% to 18%. Similarly, the excise duty on cigarettes also increased significantly. The revenue from these two measures was estimated at 115 billion rupees in three and a half months. The total new tax measures implemented from March 1 were estimated at Rs 170 billion for the next three months.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on February 7 also ordered the big taxpayers to deposit 50 percent of their super tax to the FBR.
According to an official source, all these measures did not help the FBR to achieve the revenue collection target for April. Despite taking several measures, the tax commissioners were facing failure to achieve their goals.
Apart from the worst-ever depreciation of the rupee, the impact of over 36 percent inflation has also not been reflected in revenue collections.