Traders paid Rs413bn tax against Rs189bn last year

ISLAMABAD: The traders, including wholesalers and retailers, have shown a declared tax amount of Rs413 billion in their tax returns for 2024-25 against Rs189 billion declared in the last financial year.

This revenue collection figure from traders, including retailers and wholesalers, has been shared by Minister for Finance and Revenues Mohammad Aurangzeb during a news conference on Saturday. However, he did not explain whether these revenues were fetched in the shape of General Sales Tax (GST) or Income Tax (IT) in the current fiscal year.

When asked about fate of Tajir Dost Scheme (TDS), the minister did not reply. He said deepening of tax base was required to reduce burden on salaried and formal manufacturing sectors.

However, sources said, declared tax amount by traders stood at Rs413 billion for the current fiscal year against Rs189 billion for the last fiscal year. It does not reflect their net tax amount paid by them in the shape of Income Tax.

The FBR had slapped increased tax rates in the shape of 236G and 236H for unregistered retailers. It helped jack up their tax amount as withholding taxes.

The sources said the same argument was shared with the IMF on the occasion of last review meetings. But the IMF is going to insist upon using more innovative methods in the upcoming budget for bringing retailers into the tax net.

The minister for finance said the tax-to-GDP ratio would be stretched up to 10.6 percent of GDP in the current fiscal year against 8.8pc, expected to achieve an increase by 1.8pc of GDP. It indicates the FBR’s tax collection target was revised downward from Rs12,970 billion to Rs12,332 billion till end June 2025.

The minister said tax-to-GDP ratio would be jacked up to 13.5pc over the medium term. He said the FBR revenues went up by 29pc in the last fiscal year. In the current fiscal year, the revenues were targeted to go up by 32.5pc. The minister said new return filers deposited Rs105 billion along with Income Tax returns till Oct 31, 2025 against Rs45 billion paid by them by the same period of last financial year.

The number of filers also increased from 2 to 4 million till end of October 2025, he said, adding the number of filers had now gone up to over 6 million, as process of filing returns still continued.