ISLAMABAD: The tax authorities reported over 20 per cent growth in revenue collection during the first two months (July-August) of this fiscal year.
The rising trend in collection is the outcome of new revenue measures including raising of general sales tax rate from 16pc to 17pc, reviving hopes that the Federal Board of Revenue will meet its target for 2013-14.
The provisional revenue collection reached Rs278 billion in July-August 2013 from Rs230bn collected in the same period last year, reflecting an increase of 20.86pc.
The government has projected Rs2,475bn revenue collection target for 2013-14 as against the collection of Rs1,936bn in the outgoing fiscal year 2012-13, an increase of 27.84pc.
The government has imposed Rs210bn worth of new taxation measures in the budget to achieve the target.
The FBR witnessed over Rs445bn shortfall in revenue collection in the last fiscal year.
The collection under the head of Inland Revenue Service (IRS) — income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty — witnessed a growth of 24.75pc as it reached Rs246bn in July-Aug period this year from Rs197.79bn over the corresponding months of last year.
On the other hand, customs collection witnessed no growth during the first two months 2013-14 because of depreciation of the rupee and drop in dutiable imports.
As a result, customs collections in July-Aug stood at Rs32bn this year as against Rs32.821bn collected in the same months last year.
A senior official told Dawn on Tuesday that the revenue collection may go up because of finalisation of the revenue figures in the next few days.
FBR was expecting increased revenue from two policy measures of the present government — upward price adjustments in petroleum products, electricity tariffs etc.
These will jack up the inflation in the country, which will cross the double digit in the next few months. The increase in inflation as well as petroleum products prices will yield additional revenue for the government exchequer.
