Tax collection touches Rs 2,900b against target of Rs 2,898b

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has provisionally collected Rs 328 billion so far in February 2021. So overall tax collection in the first eight months (July-Feb) touched Rs 2,900 billion against the desired target of Rs 2,898 billion.

According to the FBR’s announcement made here on Friday night, the FBR achieved its eight month revenue collection target. Just ahead of completing the ongoing month of February 2021, the FBR so far collected Rs 2,900 billion in the first eight months (July-Feb) period of 2020-21 against the desired target of Rs 2,898 billion, surpassing the target by Rs 2 billion.

The FBR will have to collect Rs 2,067 billion in the remaining four months (March-June) period to materialize the annual tax collection target of Rs 4,967 billion for the current fiscal year. Although Pakistan and the IMF have agreed to revising downward the tax collection target from Rs 4.967 trillion to Rs 4.7 trillion, so far it was not yet conveyed to the FBR officially. Keeping in view the downward revised target of Rs 4.7 trillion, the FBR will have to collect Rs 1,800 billion during the remaining four months (March-June) period for achieving the downward revised target on its board.

The FBR had provisionally collected Rs 2,572 billion during Jul-Jan 2021 against Rs 2426 billion in the same period last year, posting a growth of 6.0 per cent. The net collection had exceeded the target by Rs 22 billion. The domestic tax collection increased by 6.2 per cent to Rs 2,173 billion in the first seven months of the FY 2021 against Rs 2,046 billion in the comparable period of last year. Within domestic, the direct tax grew by 5.0 per cent, sales 7.8 per cent and FED 2.8 per cent during Jul-Jan 2021 over the same period of last year. For the month of January, the net tax collection recorded a growth of 12.5 per cent to accumulate Rs 366 billion, while it exceeded the target by Rs 26 billion in the month of Jan 2021.