ISLAMABAD: The government collected about Rs595 billion in different taxes on oil and gas in 2012-13, accounting for almost 31 per cent of total revenues collected by the Federal Board of Revenue at Rs1,936bn.

As such, the oil and gas sector has emerged as the single largest contributor to Pakistan’s total revenue.

According to final financial data reconciled by the Accountant General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR), the federal government was able to collect Rs110bn as petroleum levy on sale of petroleum products during the outgoing fiscal year against Rs60bn a year before, registering an increase of 83pc.

Likewise, the government also collected Rs32.2bn as development surcharge on natural gas in 2012-13 compared with Rs23bn collected in the preceding year, showing an increase of 39pc. Similarly, an amount of Rs65.2bn was recovered on account of royalty on oil and gas during the year under review compared to Rs62.8bn a year before, a 4 per cent increase. In addition, the government also collected about Rs23.8bn as Windfall Levy against crude oil during the FY13 compared with no collection under this head a year before.

On top of that, the government was also able to recover about Rs33.6bn on account of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) against zero collection on this account ever before because the GIDC was imposed on sale of natural gas under Finance Bill 2012-13.

However, the government collected Rs15.5bn as ‘discount retained’ on crude price during the year ending June 30, 2013 compared with Rs20bn of a year before, showing a reduction of about 22pc. As such, total revenue on account of these five heads during 2012-13 stood at about Rs280bn against Rs165bn a year before, an increase of about 70pc.

On top of these collection, the government also earned about Rs240bn as general sales tax on sale of petroleum products during last fiscal year and another Rs75bn GST on sale of natural gas, taking the total revenue collection through oil gas sector at Rs595bn.

In addition to these, the government is also reported to have earned over Rs25bn non-tax revenue as dividend and return on equity against its share in the public sector companies like OGDCL, PSO, PPL, SSGC and SNGPL. The total earnings were, therefore, worked out at about Rs620bn.

This did not include excise duty and different provincial taxes on oil and gas sector and customs duty on import of oil and gas products.

According to final consolidated position of budgetary operations verified by the AGPR, the FBR was able to collect only Rs1,936bn during the last fiscal year against its budgetary target of Rs2,381bn -- missing the target by about Rs445bn or about 20pc.

The final fiscal results showed that total revenue at Rs2.882 trillion during FY13 stood at 13pc of GDP while tax revenue at Rs2.199tr amounted to 9.6pc of GDP.

This suggested that while total revenue had slightly gone up from 12.4pc of GDP during 2011-12 and was supported by non-tax revenue coming mostly from oil and gas sector, the tax revenue unfortunately declined to 9.6pc in 2012-13 against 9.9pc of GDP in 2011-12.

This was also evident from the fact that non-tax revenue in 2012-13 amounted to 3.4pc of GDP against 2.5pc of GDP in 2011-12.