ISLAMABAD - The pace of tax collection slowed down to 16 percent during first nine months (July to March) of the ongoing fiscal year, well below the target of 19 percent.

Federal Board of Revenue, during first nine months of the current financial year, has recorded a provisional net revenue collection of over Rs2621 billion as against Rs 2260 billion collected during the same period of the previous fiscal year, excluding collection on account of book adjustments. FBR has recorded an increase of around 16% over the revenue collected during the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

The provisional collection for the month of March 2018 was 361 billion excluding collection on account of book adjustments. The figures of collection received in the treasuries of the remote areas may further increase the revenue figures. The revenue collection trend during the first nine months of the financial year augurs well for the efforts of FBR towards achievement of the assigned annual revenue targets.

It is worth mentioning here that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has downward revised its annual target by around Rs100 billion for current fiscal year. The FBR has estimated that tax collection will reach Rs3900 billion by the end of ongoing fiscal year. The government had set the tax collection target at Rs4013 billion for the current fiscal year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also estimated that FBR would not achieve its tax collection target during FY2018. The tax collection would remain Rs55 billion lesser than the target approved by the parliament. The tax collection is expected to reach Rs3958 billion as against the target of Rs4013 billion.