ISLAMABAD  -  The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has assured Federal Minister for Fi­nance and Revenue Muhammad Au­rangzeb to achieve the annual tax collection target during the current financial year. Finance Minister visited the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Headquarters yesterday and presided over a meeting to review revenue col­lection performance of FBR. 

Chairman FBR Malik Amjed Zubair Ti­wana and Members of the Board attend­ed the meeting. Chairman FBR extended a warm welcome to the minister on be­half of the FBR team. He gave a detailed presentation on the revenue collection efforts and various revenue generation initiatives taken by FBR as well as issues currently being faced in revenue ad­ministration. The minister was briefed that FBR has successfully achieved the cumulative revenue collection target for the first eight months of the cur­rent financial year and is committed to achieve the overall target as well.

The finance minister appreciated the FBR team for their efforts in meeting the targets. He called for expediting the re­form process and digitisation of FBR for better performance and enhanced rev­enue generation. The minister also di­rected to evolve a mechanism to ensure transparency in tax collection system. He assured the FBR team of his complete support in the performance of their du­ties and directed to increase their efforts to achieve the true tax potential.

The FBR has faced shortfall in tax collection in the second consecutive month in February. The tax collec­tion target for the month of February 2024 was set at Rs714 billion. Keep­ing in view the monthly collection of Rs681 billion during February 2024, the monthly shortfall has increased to Rs33 billion. In January 2024, the FBR had suffered a shortfall of Rs9 billion. According to a tweet of the FBR issued on Thursday, the FBR has surpassed eight-month target of Rs5,829 billion and registered a growth of 30 per cent. During February 2024, the FBR col­lected Rs681 billion against Rs519 bil­lion collected during February 2023, reg¬istering a growth of 32 per cent.

It is worth mentioning here that the government has set tax collection target at Rs9.415 trillion for FY24 as against the revised collection of Rs7.2tr in FY23, showing an increase of 30 per­cent. The FBR would have to collect Rs4.3 trillion in remaining five months (February to June) of the current fis­cal year to achieve the annual tax col­lection target. An official of the FBR informed that the government would achieve the target without any addi­tional revenue generation measure. He admitted that higher inflation rate is helping in increasing the tax collection. The government had set inflation rate target at 21 percent for the current fis­cal year. However, currently it is in the range of 28 to 29 percent, helping in higher tax collection. He said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had also expressed satisfaction over the tax collection during the current fiscal year.