ISLAMABAD: The government cut Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) annual collection target by Rs119 billion to Rs2.691 trillion from the original Rs2.81tr in order to adjust the shortfalls witnessed in the first seven months (July-Jan) of this fiscal year.

An official source told Dawn on Friday that the target was revised after getting approval from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the sixth review in Dubai for the release of $518 million tranche.

During the last fiscal year, the target was revised five times because of the dismal performance of the tax department.

The revenue collected during July-Jan 2014-15 was Rs1,338.946bn compared to Rs1,197.334bn last year, an increase of Rs141.612bn (11.82 per cent).

The FBR will now have to collect Rs1,352.052bn in the next five months (Feb-June) to meet the revised target. It collected Rs1,068.978bn during the same period last year.

The decline in revenue collection is mainly driven by fall in the collection of sales tax on domestic commodities. However, the real impact of the price decline on oil prices was not clear from the statistics because the government has already imposed additional 10pc sales tax.

The revenue growth remained narrow despite the fact that tax officials withheld due refunds of taxpayers in the seven-month period. The FBR paid out Rs62.322bn during July-Jan compared to Rs68.393bn last year, reflecting a decline of Rs6.071bn.

The refunds were mostly withheld under the income tax because the payment of customs and sales tax rebate/refund rose nominally. So bulk of the refunds withheld so far was in the income tax.

Provisional figures showed that tax collection under the head of direct taxes rose by Rs79.476bn to Rs518.378bn in July-Jan from Rs438.902bn last year. But the refunds paid under the head of income tax fell by Rs9.034bn to Rs31.064bn from Rs40.098bn.

The collection under the head of sales tax increased by Rs24.491bn to reach Rs586.344bn compared to Rs561.853bn last year.

The growth is mainly driven by increase in sales tax collected at import stage. The collection of sales tax at domestic stage, however, dropped by Rs587m year-on-year to Rs272.804bn in July-Jan as against Rs273.391bn.

The collection under the head of federal excise duty rose by Rs8.016bn to Rs75.576bn from Rs67.560bn. Customs collection increased to Rs158.647bn from Rs129.020bn last year, an increase of Rs29.627bn.

Published in Dawn February 7th , 2015

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