FBR targets to collect Rs192b in June

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has set a high tax collection target of Rs191.8 billion for June in a bid to reduce the shortfall in tax receipts in the current fiscal year.

For the current quarter April-June, the FBR has set a target of Rs441.3 billion. Officials said the FBR had agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to increase the overall tax collection target from Rs1,380 billion to Rs1,396 billion, but later developments forced the FBR to revised the target.

The two sides agreed to revert to the original target of Rs1,380 during their talks for the release of the fifth loan trances of $1.13 billion of the IMF’s 11.3 billion loan programme.

However, the target of Rs1,380 billion seems difficult to achieve as it has been able to collect Rs1,135 billion in the first 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year 2009-10, according to provisional statistics.

There is a shortfall of more than Rs53 billion in the 11 months and the FBR is trying its best to meet the gap by collecting more than Rs200 billion in June.

Even if it succeeds in collecting Rs200 billion in the last month, it will miss the overall target, for which it has to recover Rs245 billion in taxes.

This June’s target of Rs191.8 billion is Rs30.6 billion more that the collection of Rs161.2 billion in June last year. In June 2010, the target for direct tax collection is Rs94.2 billion.

Published in the Express Tribune, June, 2010.