PM felicitates nation on FBR's Rs1,395b revenue collection

Prime Minister Imran Khan felicitated the nation on Friday for the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) achievement of collecting Rs1,395 billion in revenues in the first quarter of the financial year 2021-22.

"I congratulate the nation on FBR’s achievement of collecting Rs.1,395 billion in Q1 of FA 2021-22 against the target of Rs.1,211 billion," the premier said on Twitter.

Imran further said that the achievement represented "a growth of 38 percent in the revenues over the same period last year."

Earlier today, it was reported that the board exceeded its first quarter revenue target and received Rs1.4 trillion but failed to expand the tax base, as the number of return filers dropped 42% to just 1.8 million till the statutory deadline.

Due to the failure to increase the number of tax return filers coupled with the collapse of information technology system on the last day, the FBR extended the deadline by 15 days from September 30, which was given in the Income Tax Ordinance.

Read FBR struggles to broaden tax base

The government had earlier promised to improve the FBR’s information technology system after the worst hacking last month.

By the end of statutory deadline, less than 1.8 million people had filed tax returns for tax year 2021, down 1.3 million or 42% compared to tax year 2020, according to an official of the FBR.

Apart from technical problems, the government has failed to instill confidence in taxpayers so that they could become filers of tax returns.

Before becoming the prime minister, Imran Khan used to believe that the government of Nawaz Sharif was a hurdle in the way of widening the tax base and improving the tax collection.

The revenue board was successful in maintaining a healthy momentum of increase in tax collection, largely aided by the rise in imports that provided more than half of the total tax revenues and also helped camouflage weaknesses in the economy.