FBR surpasses seven-month tax target by Rs17b

• The FBR has surpassed its monthly target for January 2021 as its collection fetched Rs363 billion against a target of Rs341 billion
• The FBR will have to collect Rs2,395 billion in the remaining five months from Feb to June 
• Collection will help restore confidence of tax collection machinery before the IMF

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has surpassed its seven-month (July-Jan) collection target by Rs17 billion as it collected Rs2,568 billion against the desired target of Rs2,551 billion, The News reported Saturday.

The monthly target of the FBR for January 2021 was Rs341 billion while it collected Rs363 billion, crossing the target by Rs22 billion.

“The revival of stalled IMF program is around the corner and the FBR’s performance for achieving its target for January 2021 will help restoring confidence of tax collection machinery,” said one top official of FBR. 

Now, the FBR machinery could claim the IMF that they would achieve the annual tax collection target of Rs 4,963 billion envisaged for the current fiscal year.

The FBR’s top official said that the net revenue collection stood at Rs363 billion which was 12% higher over the same month of last fiscal year and so far the highest during the current fiscal year. He said that the economic activities started picking up so its impact was appearing on revenue collection efforts.

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Now the FBR will have to collect Rs2,395 billion in the remaining five months (Feb to June) for displaying the desired fixed target of Rs4,963 billion on June 30, 2021.

The FBR had collected net revenue of Rs2,205 billion from July to December which showed a growth of 5% over Rs2101 billion which was collected during the same period last year.

The Income Tax collection for July to December stood at Rs816 billion. Similarly, collection of Sales Tax, Federal Excise Duty, Customs Duty remained at Rs915 billion, Rs127 billion and Rs336 billion respectively.

For the month of 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 469 billion collected in last December. There is an increase of Rs39 billion in the revenue collection of December 2019. This is the highest monthly growth during Jul-Dec period.

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In the first six months of current fiscal, refunds to the tune of Rs102 billion were issued compared to Rs53 billion for the same period the last year. This represents an increase of 90% in the issuance of refunds. Moreover, under the Prime Minister’s Corona Relief Package, refunds of Rs42 billion were also issued this year.

Despite excessive issuance of refunds this year, the tax regulator has managed to collect significantly more revenue in comparison to last year when COVID had not disrupted the economic life. Increased refunds have greatly helped boost the economic activity in the country.

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.