The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has fallen short of the ten-month revenue target for the current fiscal year by a record margin.
The revenue collection from July to April of this fiscal year stood at Rs. 2.993 trillion against the target of Rs. 3.35 trillion, missing the mark by at least Rs. 345 billion, an FBR official said.
The total collection may further increase by a few billion once the final figures for April are out, the official said.
“The overall collection for July-April was higher by just Rs. 70 billion or 2.4% as compared to the corresponding period last year,” the official said, adding that FBR collected Rs. 2.923 trillion in the first ten months last fiscal years.
However, the worrisome part is that the rate of increase in tax collection remained far below the nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 12.5% during the current fiscal year so far.
For April alone, the tax revenue shortfall stood at Rs. 52 billion as the revenue collecting authority could collect only Rs. 288 billion. Its monthly target was Rs. 340 billion.
FBR also missed the target of customs duties collection for the previous month. The monthly target of customs duties was Rs. 61.7 billion, but it could only amass Rs. 55 billion.
The initial revenue collection target for the fiscal year was Rs. 4.4 trillion which was later revised to Rs. 4.1 trillion by the former Finance Minister Asad Umar.
However, in the given scenario, this too seems to be an uphill task as FBR has formally requested the finance ministry to revise the target again. The target only seems possible if an effective amnesty scheme is launched which is still under preparation.
The major tax defaulters for FBR are some government sectors including the power distribution companies, Pakistan Railways, and PIA.
Thank U Shareef & Bhutto Family !