FBR exceeds Oct collection target by Rs31 billion

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has so far exceeded its collection by Rs31 billion and collected Rs428 billion in October 2021 against the envisaged target of Rs397 billion, it has been learnt.

The FBR has far collected a net of Rs1,823 billion during July-October (2021-22) against the assigned target of Rs1,608 billion, showing that it exceeded its target by Rs215 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year. The FBR was able to materialize good performance but it was largely achieved through duty/taxes collected at the import stage.

The FBR has achieved almost 55 percent revenue collection through the import stage, so if imports are curbed under the IMF program, then the revenue collection would also be impacted negatively in the remaining period of the current fiscal year.

The FBR’s tax collection exceeded by 29 percent as the revenue collection went up to Rs428 billion in October 2021 against the assigned target of Rs397 billion. “We are expecting that the FBR’s collection will go up by a few billion rupees more when the figures will be finalised,” an FBR official said.

In first 29 days of October 2021, the FBR fetched Rs428 billion and exceeded its assigned target with huge margin of 29 percent. The FBR had collected Rs331 billion in the same month in last fiscal year 2020-21. The FBR's provisional tax collection amounted to Rs1,823 billion (net) during the first four months of current fiscal year against Rs1,342 billion collected in the corresponding period of 2020-21, showing an increase of 35 percent.

The FBR had made net revenue collection of Rs1,395 billion during the first quarter of the current Financial Year against the set target of Rs1,211 billion, exceeding by Rs186 billion. The net collection for the month of September 2021 stood at Rs535 billion, representing an increase of 31.2pc over Rs408 billion collected in September 2020.

It is pertinent to mention that after collecting over Rs4.7 trillion and exceeding its assigned revenue targets set for the tax year 2020-21, the FBR has successfully maintained the momentum in the first four months of the current fiscal year 2021-22.

The FBR wants to achieve the annual target of Rs5,829 billion during the current fiscal year. There is also a possibility to jack up the FBR’s tax collection target from Rs5,829 billion to Rs6,100- 6,300 billion under the IMF program in order to compensate the losses incurred on front of shortfall related to petroleum levy to the tune of Rs450-500 billion during the current fiscal year.