FBR to collect Rs2,759b in last six months of fiscal year to meet target

• FBR releases provisional revenue collection figures for first six months of FY20-21
• FBR issues close to Rs102 billion in refunds in first six months of FY 20-21
• Close to 2.3 million returns filed till December 31 

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) announced on Friday that it has collected Rs2,204 billion in the first half (July-Dec) of the current fiscal year and has to now collect Rs2,759 billion more in the remaining months of the fiscal year to meet its desired target of Rs4,963 billion for FY2020-21.

The country’s tax collecting authority had released on Friday the provisional revenue collection figures for the first six months of the current year.

FBR has collected a net revenue of Rs2,204 billion, which is 99.7% of its six-monthly target of Rs2,210. The figures also show a growth of 5% over Rs2,101 billion, which was collected during the same period of the last fiscal year of 2019-20.

As per the breakdown, the income tax collection for July to December stood at Rs816 billion. Similarly, sales tax, federal excise duty and customs duty remained at Rs915 billion, Rs127 billion and Rs336 billion respectively.

An additional Rs10 billion has been collected from book adjustment. It is expected that revenue to be collected from book adjustment will increase in the coming days.

Read more: FBR permits taxpayers seeking extension to file income tax returns

For December only, the total collected revenue stood at Rs508 billion, which was 97.7% of the target of Rs520 billion and showed a growth of 8.3% against Rs469 billion collected last December.

According to The News, there was an increase of Rs39 billion in the revenue collection for December 2020, making it the highest monthly growth recorded during the six months.

The FBR shared that it had issued close to Rs102 billion in refunds in the first six months of the current fiscal year compared to Rs53 billion issued in the same period last year.

This represents an increase of 90% in the issuance of refunds. Under the Prime Minister’s Corona Relief Package, refunds of Rs42 billion have also been issued this year.

The publication reported that despite the excessive issuance of refunds, FBR has still managed to collect significantly more revenue compared to last year when COVID had not disrupted economic life.

Read more: FBR sends 'very polite' tax notice to 70,000 potential tax evaders

FBR’s performance shows that despite the second wave of COVID, the government policies are showing signs of economic revival across the broad-spectrum business activities.

The FBR also shared that during the first six months of the current fiscal year, smuggled goods worth Rs30 billion were seized as compared to seizures of Rs22 billion during the corresponding months of 2019.

Last date of filing returns welcomed

After many years, the FBR has restored the sanctity of the last date of filing of income tax returns.

The move was welcomed by taxpayers as 2.3 million returns have been filed till December 31 compared to 2.17 million last year.

Income tax paid during filing of returns stood at Rs43.5 billion compared to only Rs28 billion deposited last. This shows an increase in tax deposit with returns of 55%.

The FBR is set to move towards automation, e-audit, and simplification of procedures, e-payment of duty drawback to add to Ease of Doing Business (EoDB).

Read more: FBR serves notices to 832,000 non-filers

To help businesses,  FBR launched a single page simplified Income Tax Return for SME manufacturers. It has also improved the Iris system for issuing SMS and e-mails whenever any notice is issued or any assignment is created by a tax officer.

The FBR has launched a system called 'Maloomat-Tax Ray' where taxpayers can access all information available with the FBR by logging through a secure mechanism. For further facilitation, this feature has been launched on mobile app Tax Assan too.

The FBR has established special committees to urgently resolve the complaints of taxpayers. Now, the taxpayers can file complaints through the helpline, over email, complaint portal and registered post.