KARACHI: With the fiscal year 2020-21 set to end this month, the Sindh Rev­enue Board (SRB) is about Rs27 billion far behind the budgeted target of Rs135bn as its 11-month collection in the head of the sales tax on services stands at Rs108.686bn.

However, the SRB collection in July-May FY21 has surpassed all previous years’ collection records despite the fact that the services sector has been hit hard in the second and third waves of the coronavirus pandemic during the current fiscal year.

Latest figures released by the SRB showed that its collection soared 19 per cent to Rs108.686bn in July-May FY21 compared to Rs91.198bn in the same period last fiscal year.

However, the SRB’s May collection grew by 52pc to Rs10.261bn compared to Rs6.734bn in May 2020 when the country was under a lockdown to meet the challenges of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite improved performance, the SRB has been facing hurdles in meeting the revenue target of Rs135bn set by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah during his budget speech in June 2020.

The board needs to collect Rs27bn in the month of June alone to meet the revenue target. It appears that SRB authorities realised that this was a gigantic task as its spokesperson stated that the board “will continue to work hard to maximise the revenue collection during the remainder of the current financial year 2020-21 despite all adverse factors such as low economic growth and the resurgence of Covid-19 impacting the services sector”.

Commenting on the 52pc growth in May alone, the spokesperson attributed the success to the “continued trust and cooperation of SRB taxpayers, the continuous support by the government of Sindh and the relentless efforts of the SRB officers and staff”.

Only on Monday, the board launched a one-time tax incentive scheme under which penalties would stand remitted and substantial exemption of default surcharge liability be provided to the taxpayers and defaulters if they deposit the principal amount of arrears of the Sindh Sales Tax before the end of the FY21.

The 11-month sales tax collection of Rs108.686bn is more than the annual revenue collection in all previous years since the establishment of the SRB in 2011. The SRB’s first year collection was Rs25bn followed by Rs33.7bn in FY13; Rs42.49 in FY14; Rs49.37bn in FY15; Rs61.6bn in FY16; Rs78.5bn in FY17; Rs100.3bn in FY18; Rs100.1bn in FY19 and Rs105.9bn in FY20.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2021