FBR needs to collect Rs3,275 billion in seven months to achieve annual target

FBR needs to collect Rs3,275 billion in seven months to achieve annual target

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is required to collect Rs3,275 billion in remaining seven months to meet the revenue collection target for the current fiscal year.

The FBR has been assigned to collect Rs4,963 billion as revenue collection target for the fiscal year 2020/2021.

The FBR provisionally collected Rs1,688 billion during first five months (July – November) 2020/2021, according to details made available on Tuesday.

The collection during the first five months of the current fiscal year however above the target of Rs Rs1,669 billion for the period.

The revenue collection during July-November (2020-2021) also witnessed an increase of over 4 percent as compared to the collection of Rs1,623 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

According to the breakup figures, the Income Tax collection during the period under review was recorded at Rs 577 billion.

Similarly, collection of Sales Tax, Federal Excise Duty, Customs Duty remained at Rs 743 billion, Rs 104 billion and Rs 264.4 billion, respectively.

The FBR collected gross revenue of Rs 1,773 billion during the first five months compared to the collection of Rs1,664 billion last year, showing an increase of Rs109 billion in the current year.

Meanwhile, during the month of November 2020, the FBR collected revenues Rs 347 billion against the target of Rs 348 billion.

Meanwhile, during the first five months of current fiscal year, refunds to the tune of Rs 80 billion were issued against Rs41 billion last year. The refunds helped in boost economic activity in the country.

The refunds issued during the month of November this year were recorded at over Rs17 billion which were Rs4 billion in the corresponding month last year.

Despite increase in refunds, FBR still managed to cross the revenue collection of November last year.

During the first five months of current Fiscal Year, smuggled goods worth Rs27 billion were seized as compared to seizures of Rs18 billion during the corresponding months of 2019.

According to an FBR press statement, the board’s appreciable performance was despite the fact that the economy had been sluggish in the wake of on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, the government had extended significant tax relief measures to the public in the Finance Act, 2020.

The statement added that the board was fully geared towards automation, e-audit, and simplification of procedures, e-payment of duty draw back so as to add to Ease of Doing Business (EoDB).

The board launched a single page simplified Income Tax Return for SME manufacturers and also upgraded IRIS system for issuing SMS and e-mails whenever any notice was issued or any assignment is created by Tax Officer.

The FBR launched a system Maloomat-TaxRay wherein taxpayers’ can access all information available with the FBR by logging through a secure mechanism.

This feature has been launched in mobile app, Tax Assan, so that taxpayers’ can easily access all such information.

They had appealed the taxpayers to avail these facilitative measures and ensure filing Annual Income Tax Returns by the last date i.e. December 8, 2020.