ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The tax machinery has estimated a revenue shortfall of Rs181 billion in the current fiscal year (2012-13) owing to dip in economic growth and lesser revenue collection.

“We have informed the visiting IMF delegation that the Federal Board of Revenue collection will be around Rs2,200 billion by end June 2013”, a senior tax official told Dawn on Saturday, who was privy to the meetings of tax official with the Fund.

The government has projected a revenue collection target of Rs2,381 billion for 2012-13.

The official said for the first half year (2012-13), the FBR is facing a revenue shortfall of Rs57.676 billion in July-Dec period this year over the last year.

In absolute term, the revenue collection reached to Rs901 billion in July-Dec period this year as against Rs958.676 billion over the corresponding period of last year.

However, in December 2012 the revenue collection stood at Rs211 billion as against Rs201.676 billion over the same month last year, showing an increase of 4.6 per cent.

As a result of this shortfall, it is expected to jack up budget deficit to an un-manageable level.

All federal taxes are way behind from their respective targets for the current fiscal year excluding collection from customs duties.

It seems that the FBR may not reach closer to last year’s collection of Rs1,883 billion which remained short by Rs70bn of original target of Rs1,952 billion.

If situation remains politically unstable during the caretaker setup and post-election period, the collection of revenue in the second half year of the current fiscal year will deteriorate further.

However, the tax official said that imports are expected to rise in the second half (Jan-June), which will generate additional revenue for the kitty.

With the shortfall in revenue collection, the tax to GDP is now estimated at 9.4 per cent for the year 2012-13 from earlier projected 10 percent. Last year, the tax to GDP ratio was 9.1 per cent.

The government has worked out three-ways of bridging the shortfall in revenue collection announcement of amnesty bill and resolving revenue cases stuck in various courts in the next six months.

The Senate has already approved the amnesty bill last month with few amendments and referred to the National Assembly Standing Committee for discussion and approval.

The National Assembly session has been convened on Monday, which among others will take up the amnesty bill for whitening of black money for approval.

According to the official, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance will take up the amnesty bill next week. “We are expecting that the bill will be approved in the current session of the assembly”, the tax official hoped.

The FBR has projected that the amnesty bill would help FBR raise around Rs90 billion additional revenue in a period of three months.

However, past experiences of amnesty schemes had only generated revenue in the range of Rs1 billion to Rs2 billion and the proposed amnesty schemes may not be different from the previous ones.

FBR has also sought amendments in the alternate dispute resolution laws from the parliament to make resolution mode of tax disputes the first choice of taxpayers. It has been estimated that almost Rs256 billion have been stuck in court cases for the past many years.

As per proposed amendments to tax laws, recommendations of the committee, set up for resolution of tax disputes, will be either accepted or rejected within 45 days by the FBR. These amendments were part of the tax amnesty bill.

As part of the third option, the FBR was also considering an amnesty scheme for the smuggled cars.

Customs intelligence had collected data of 2.3 million non-duty paid smuggled vehicles in the country. To legalise these cars, customs department was expecting huge duties and taxes from the owners of these smuggled vehicles.