FBR

 
ISLAMABAD: Tax collection by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) increased at half the targeted rate of 24 per cent, rising by only 12pc year-on-year to Rs1.337 trillion in the first seven months of this fiscal year.

It reflected a shortfall of Rs158 billion against the seven-month target of Rs1.495tr.

In January, the FBR collected Rs171bn against the target of Rs210bn.

A source in the FBR told Dawn that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was happy with the performance of the tax machinery as he compared its current performance with that of the previous government’s last year when the growth in the collection was mere 3pc.

The government, however, has raised the general sales tax rate to 17pc from 16pc besides taking huge new taxation measures including increase in withholding tax during the last two budgets.

Customs duty collection witnessed a massive decline because of rampant corruption and clearance of containers on lesser revenue.

For 2014-15, the government set a revenue collection target of Rs. 2.81 tr, an increase of 24pc over Rs. 2.266 tr collected in 2013-14.

The FBR now has to collect Rs. 1,437 tr in Feb-June to achieve this fiscal year’s target.

A tax official privy to tax targets told Dawn that the revenue shortfall would reach Rs. 320 bn by end-June if the tax authorities did not take corrective measures.

The target was revised five times during the last fiscal year because of dismal performance of the tax department.

By Dec 5, 2014 only 750,000 people filed income tax returns (e-filing and manual) compared to 835,000 returns filed last year, showing a decline of 10.18pc.

The government has asked the tax department to increase tax base by 50pc by bringing around 1.25 million more people under the tax roll. However, this target was missed with a wide margin. At the same time, it has also projected to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio to 10.2pc, but it remained 9.3pc.