ISLAMABAD, Sept 6: Federal Board of Revenue figures on Thursday revealed that owing to exemptions given to certain sectors in taxes, Rs27 billion revenue loss was witnessed in 2011-12.

The fall in revenue collection was witnessed in all federal taxes--Rs21 billion in sales tax and federal excise, Rs3.8 billion in direct taxes and Rs2.1 billion in customs, according to FBR quarterly report for April-June 2011-12.

Instead of lamenting exemptions to certain sectors, the FBR in its report maintained that giving such exemptions reflected government resolve to provide relief to taxpayers and public at large in all taxes.

The FBR also released final revenue collection figures for 2011-12. It collected Rs1,883 billion in 2011-12 as against target of Rs1952 billion, showing a shortfall of Rs69 billion.

The target was missed by 3.5 per cent despite unfavourable economic conditions, the report maintained.

According to the report, the Sindh Revenue Board collected Rs25 billion on account of services.

By inclusion of Rs25 billion in FBR collection, total receipts would go up to Rs1908 billion.

There was a growth in net revenue collection of 20.9 per cent over actual realisation of Rs1,558 billion during fiscal year 2010-11.

Another improvement witnessed was tax-to-GDP ratio which improved to 9.2 per cent in 2011-12 from 8.6 per cent during 2010-11.

The Rs2,381 billion target set for fiscal year 2012-13 is challenging as about 27 per cent growth over previous fiscal year’s collection would be required to achieve the target.

Keeping in view the huge target, FBR field formations have to strive hard and make all-out efforts to achieve the revenue target of Rs2,381 billion for the current fiscal year, according to the report.

In the outgoing fiscal year 2011-12, all the four taxes performed slightly well during the period under review except FED where there is a negative growth of 10.8 per cent.

Major reasons behind negative growth is abolition of Special Excise Duty (SED) both at import and domestic stages, reduction of FED rates of beverages from 12 per cent to 6 per cent and also reduction of FED rates on cement from Rs700 per ton to Rs500 per ton.

Collection under direct taxes stood at Rs738.8 billion which is higher by 22.6 per cent as compared with the corresponding period’s collection of Rs602.5 billion.

Similarly, an amount of Rs804.8 billion was collected under sales tax head during fiscal year 2011-12, indicating a growth of 27.1 per cent over collection of Rs633.4 billion in the comparable period of last year.

This is partially due to efforts to broaden the tax base by removing major sales tax exemptions and zero-ratings. Sales tax collection from imports registered a growth of 39.4 per cent. Around 15 per cent growth was witnessed in sales tax collection from domestic side.

As far as customs duty is concerned, Rs216.9 billion was collected during 2011-12.

The collection of customs duty recorded a growth of 17.3 per cent over collection of Rs184.9 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

This achievement was made despite modest growth of 6.1 per cent in the dutiable imports during the period under review.