ISLAMABAD - Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) missed the tax collection target in the month of April by Rs 14.47 billion, which made difficult for the tax authorities to meet the annual target of Rs 1.3 trillion at the end of current fiscal year. According to the provisional figures released by FBR on Tuesday, the tax authorities collected only Rs 83.53 billion in April against the target of Rs 98 billion set by Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) back in Feb 2009. FBR accumulated Rs 898.64 billion during the first ten months (July-April) of the current financial year showing an increase of 17.7 per cent over the corresponding period of the last year. The tax authorities collected Rs 898.64 billion as against Rs 763.59 billion of corresponding period of the last fiscal year, the figures reveal. Economic experts are of the view that achieving the annual target of Rs 1,300 billion seems ambitious due to the slow economic growth in the country and little time to widen the tax base. Sources in the tax machinery told TheNation that tax bosses had to face a shortfall of around Rs 75 billion at the end of current financial year. Decrease in imports and decline in the prices of fuel and food commodities resulted in lower tax collection in the current year, he added. The figures further showed that FBR generated Rs 83.53 billion only in the month of April showing a decline of 0.2 per cent against Rs 83.67 billion of the same period last year. During April 2009, the FBR collected Rs 24.95 billion as direct taxes against Rs 26.92 billion of the same period last year showing a decline of 7.3 per cent; Rs 37.78 billion as sales tax, Rs 11.79 billion as customs duty and Rs 9.01 billion as federal excise duty. The break-up of Rs 898.64 billion showed that the revenue on account of direct taxes rose to Rs 332.53 billion in the first ten months of the current financial year from Rs 284.55 billion, reflecting a growth of 16.9 per cent. The sales tax collection was Rs 358.92 billion in the period under review as against Rs 293.66 billion of the last year, showing a growth of 22.2 per cent. Similarly, the collection of federal excise duties increased by 27.6 per cent, increasing from Rs 70.57 billion to Rs 90.01 billion. Finally, a growth of 2.1 per cent was also recorded in the collection of customs duties whereas the net receipts reached Rs 117.18 billion against Rs 114.82b in the same period of the last financial year.