ISLAMABAD - The government is going to suffer a huge loss of Rs42 billion in terms of revenue collection during vacations of Eid-ul-Fitr, as economic activities would remain standstill in the country for 6 days i.e. from Tuesday to Sunday.
The government has announced six Eid holidays that would halt the economic activities of the country, which would result in revenue loss of Rs 42 billion to the national kitty.
“The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will face revenue loss of Rs 42 billion during six holiday at the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr”, said acting chairman FBR Shahid Hussain Asad while talking to The Nation. He said that FBR collected seven billion rupees everyday; therefore, six consecutive holidays would cost Rs 42 billion in terms of tax collection, he added.  The acting chairman further informed that FBR has collected Rs 125 billion during first 24 days of the ongoing month of July 2014, which is 68 percent higher than the collection of corresponding month of previous year when it collected Rs 74 billion. Shahid Hussain informed that FBR’s monthly collection target for July 2014 is Rs 137 billion, which would be achieved easily. The FBR is expecting that the current growth rate would continue in the first month of new fiscal year (2014-15) as all taxes including direct taxes, sales tax, Federal Excise Duty (FED) and customs duty are performing well, the official added.
“The FBR’s collection could further enhance in July 2014 if Eid’s vacations were not extended to six days”, added the acting chairman. He hoped FBR would achieve the revenue collection target of Rs 2.81 trillion set for the ongoing fiscal year 2014-2015.
Sources in FBR informed that aforesaid revenue shortfall would hit the government’s efforts to reach the ambitious tax collection target of Rs 2.81 trillion, which seems challenging at the time when FBR has already missed target in previous year.
The FBR had fixed its target at Rs2475 billion in last fiscal year, which was revised downward to Rs2345 billion and again to Rs2275 billion. However, the tax department even failed to achieve its revised target by the end of June 2014 despite taking additional taxation measures.  The FBR collected Rs 2266 billion during previous fiscal year 2013-2014 against the twice-revised tax collection target of Rs 2275 billion, leaving shortfall at Rs9 billion. It is wroth mentioning here that the government has officially announced four Eid’s vacations from July 29 to August 31 2014 that would be followed by two weekly holidays. Therefore, the economic activities if the country would remain standstill for six days.