ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) surpassed revenue collection target by Rs26 billion in the previous fiscal year, showed reconciled and consolidated data of Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) released on Tuesday.

Revenue collection rose 21 per cent to Rs3.13 trillion in the tax year 2015-16 from Rs2.589tr in the preceding year. The target for FY16 was Rs3.104tr.

Of the total amount, the FBR collected Rs1.22tr as in­co­me tax as against Rs1.033tr a year earlier, reflecting an increase of 18pc.

The collection of sales tax rose 22pc to Rs1.33tr in the outgoing fiscal year compared to Rs1.09tr in the preceding year.

This growth in sales tax collection was mainly achieved because of fixing of sales tax on import of petroleum products on a per litre basis instead of ad valorem. From July 1, the system was reversed to ad valorem after a rise in international oil prices.

The federal excise duty (FED) collection grew 9pc to Rs177bn in 2015-16 as against Rs162.2bn collected during the same period of the last year. The growth in the FED came after it was unearthed that a foreign airline was concealing tax. The clearance of debt of other airlines also helped in realising higher FED. However, collection from cigarettes fell during the year under review. The collection of FED from the beverage industry was also unsatisfactory.

The customs collection rose 30pc to Rs404bn in 2015-16 from Rs306bn a year ago. This growth was mainly driven by increasing number of regulatory duties imposed on several hundred products last year. The revision of duty on import of mobile phones also helped increase revenue collection.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2016