ISLAMABAD  - The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has set Rs 180.8 billion revenue collection target for the ongoing month of February, which is big task for the department that is struggling to achieve its annual target of Rs 2.475 trillion.
The FBR has set Rs 180.8 billion tax collection target for the current month (February), which is 29 per cent higher than the collection of Rs 140.2 billion made in same period of previous year. The FBR has missed the revenue collection targets in first six months (July-December) of the present financial year, making annual target difficult to achieve.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has provisionally collected around Rs 1,201 billion during first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year 2013-14, leaving shortfall at over Rs 80 billion. Revenue collection target for first seven months was Rs 1282 billion.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has shown concerns over the uphill revenue collection target of the government and projected that FBR would achieve only Rs2,345 billion collection, which is Rs130 billion less than the official target. Following the huge revenue shortfall, the government is considering slashing Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). Sources informed that government would have to take the aforesaid decision in order to keep budget deficit at 5.8 per cent (around Rs 1500 billion) during current fiscal year. The government made commitment with the IMF to reduce the fiscal deficit to 5.8 per cent of GDP, close to Rs1,500 billion, for the current fiscal year.
Sources said that government has set higher revenue collection target of Rs 180.8 billion for February to reduce the shortfall of first seven months (July-December) of the ongoing financial year.
The break-up of Rs 180.8 billion showed that target of sales tax is Rs 80 billion , income tax Rs 68.8 billion, Federal Excise Duty at Rs 13.4 billion and custom duty at Rs 18.8 billion for the month of February 2014.