FBR misses tax collection target by 15 per cent

ISLAMABAD: The authorities managed to collect Rs87 billion in August against a target of Rs102.4 billion, an official of the Federal Board of Revenue told The Express Tribune on Tuesday.

The authorities now face a daunting task of collecting Rs170 billion in September to meet the first quarter target as the overambitious goalposts coupled with slowdown in the industry due to floods has made the job more difficult.

The provisional collection figure may go up to Rs95 billion, the official said.

It was the second month in a row that the authorities remained short of the target after setting an aggressive mark. FBR could only collect Rs79.2 billion in July against a target of Rs90.1 billion. The government has set the first quarter collection target at Rs335.9 billion.

The independent tax experts have already labelled Rs1.67 trillion annual collection target as overambitious and overstated. They are of the view that in order to understate the budget deficit the government overstates the revenues and understates the expenditures.

They estimate the annual figure at Rs1.57 trillion. The FBR last year too could not achieve its annual target of Rs1.38 trillion and ended up collecting Rs1.329 trillion, which also became a cause of missing the annual budget deficit target. Talks have already started to downward revise the annual collection target around Rs1.6 trillion.

The official said that the August collection was still 18 per cent more than the amount collected in the same period last year.

This August the government collected Rs21.6 billion on account of direct taxes, which is even less than one-fourth of the total monthly collection. The authorities collected Rs 64.9 billon on account of indirect taxes, Rs46 billion as sales tax, Rs8.7 billion federal excise duty and Rs10.2 billion as customs duty.

The FBR on Tuesday extended the last date for filing of returns of income and salaried statements for the year 2010 by a month to September 30, according to a notification issued.

The extension was granted in the wake of the worst ever floods of the country’s history. The employers are supposed to submit the returns on behalf of the employees.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2010.