ISLAMABAD - Tax collection by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in the last financial year surged to Rs3130 billion as per figures compiled by Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues (AGPR).
The tax collection surpassed the target of Rs3104 billion set for the year, 2015-16, which is unprecedented, according to the FBR.
It further added that FBR registered net collection of more than Rs3130 billion for the year ending on June 30, 2016 against Rs2589 billion collected in the year ending on June 30, 2015; thereby registering a 21 percent increase over the last year.
However, sources in FBR informed The Nation on Tuesday that the government had taken over Rs200 billion as advance tax from companies, which helped in surpassing the tax collection target during the last fiscal year.
Similarly, the FBR had also blocked over Rs250 billion refunds of the exporters to show its tax collection target higher.
Sources further informed that tax collection in the first month (July) of the ongoing financial year 2016-17 remained quite low due to massive advance taxation in June to meet the target of the previous fiscal year.
The FBR has generated revenue worth Rs190 billion in July 2016 as against Rs162 billion in the corresponding period last year, showing an increase of 14 percent.
However, the FBR is crediting itself with achieving last year's tax collection target. The FBR had said that the originally assigned targets were achieved without any downward revision, which is an unprecedented accomplishment and speaks of the success of the economic policies being followed by the present government.
The break-up of Rs3130 billion collected in 2015-16 shows that Rs1220 billion were collected as income tax, having a growth of 18.1 percent over the last year.
The collection of sales tax in this period stood at Rs1329 billion at a growth of 22.2 percent.
Similarly, the FBR collected Rs404 billion under the head of customs duty; thereby giving an increase of over 30 percent.
Federal excise duty was collected to the tune of Rs177 billion, thus leading to an increase of 9.1 percent over the collection registered last year.