ISLAMABAD - The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has to collect Rs1300 billion during four months (April to June) of the ongoing financial year 2015-16 to meet the annual mammoth target of Rs3.1 trillion.
The government had set revenue collection target at Rs3103 billion for the current fiscal year. The FBR had provisionally collected Rs1800 billion during July-February period of 2015-16 financial year. Therefore, the tax department has to collect Rs1300 billion in remaining four months (April to June) of the ongoing financial year, which means collection of Rs325 billion every month.
"We will achieve the target as tax collection is on track so far," said an official of the FBR while talking to The Nation. He added that government has already extended the deadline of income tax returns filing, which would enhance the tax collection due to recently-announced Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme.
The imposition of mini-budget worth Rs40 billion as well as higher collection of General Sales Tax on petroleum products helped the government in increasing its tax collection during first eight months of the year 2015-2016. The tax collection during July-February of the ongoing fiscal year reflected a growth of 17.1 percent when compared with Rs1538 billion collected in the same period of the previous year.
The government in December 2015 had introduced Rs40 billion mini-budget to bridge the revenue collection shortfall that occurred during the first quarter (July-September) of the year 2015-2016. The mini-budget helped the FBR to enhance its revenue collection, as it reduced the first half (July-December) shortfall to five billion rupees. Meanwhile, the government had also charged higher GST up to 51 percent on oil prices in last several months.
According to the break-up of Rs1800 billion, the FBR collected Rs675 billion as direct taxes during July-February 2015-2016 as against Rs599 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, reflecting a growth of 13.9 percent. Similarly, the FBR had accumulated Rs786 billion as general sales tax during July-February 2015-16 against Rs 669.263 billion during the same period of 2014-15, showing a growth of 17.4 percent. Meanwhile, the collection of Federal Excise Duty (FED) amounted to Rs 99.431 billion during this period against Rs 88.735 billion in same period of last fiscal year.
The customs duty collection stood at Rs 240.645 billion during July-Feb 2015-16 against Rs 180.766 billion during corresponding period of last fiscal year, reflecting a growth of 33.1 percent.