ISLAMABAD - The government is likely to introduce another mini-budget to meet its annual tax collection target as the revenue shortfall in four months has reached Rs80 billion.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is continuously missing the tax collection targets during ongoing financial year. The FBR collected Rs860 billion during July-October period of the FY2016-17 as against the target of Rs940 billion.

The government had set ambitious tax collection target of Rs3621 billion for the current fiscal year. “The government cannot achieve the target without taking additional revenue generation measures in rest of the months of ongoing fiscal,” said an official of the FBR, wishing not to be named. He further said that government is not increasing petroleum products prices despite increase in oil prices in the international market, which is also causing dent to the tax collection. The government would have to take tough decision of imposing new taxes in the wake of the current political situation, he said.

The government had also introduced the mini budget worth Rs40 billion during the previous financial year 2015-16, which helped the FBR in surpassing the tax collection target of Rs3104 billion by Rs8 billion.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the other day, had informed the media that government was deprived of Rs12 billion in last few months due to not passing on raise in oil prices to the masses. He blamed the oil prices for missing tax collection target.

Pakistan has also assured the International Monetary Fund of announcing mini-budget for meeting its tax collection and budget deficit targets. “In case of any further deviation, we would take additional measures in order to achieve our revenue and budget deficit targets,” Finance Minister Ishaq Dar stated in a written assurance to the IMF.

It is worth mentioning here that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) provisionally collected Rs235 billion in October 2016 against Rs 224 billion in corresponding period of last fiscal, showing an increase of Rs 11 billion.

Meanwhile, the government has already directed the Chief Commissioners of Large Taxpayers Units (LTUs) and Regional Taxpayers Office (RTOs) to expedite efforts for achieving the assigned revenue collection target of Rs 3,621 billion for 2016-17 as target would not be revised downwards.