Revenue collection up 17.5pc to Rs1.7 trillion in first half

ISLAMABAD: The revenue collection during the first half of the current fiscal year (2017-18) witnessed an increase of 17.5 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The revenue collection by FBR during July-December (2017-18) was recorded at over Rs1722 billion as against Rs1466 billion collected during the same period of the previous fiscal year, showing an increase of 17.5 percent.

“The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) remained on track to achieve annual collection target of Rs4013 billion, as it had collected Rs1722 billion so far,” said FBR statement issued here.

These figures have been arrived at by taking reconciled figures of net revenue collected up to November, 2017 at Rs1305 and provisional figures of Rs 417 billion for December, 2017.

Refunds during last period have been issued to the tune of Rs58 billion as against Rs45 billion issued during this year depicting an increase of 28% over the corresponding period of previous fiscal year.

The target for the year has been fixed with an annual increase of around 19% over the previous year.

The provisional collection for the month of December 2017 was Rs417 billion excluding collection  on account of book adjustments which may range between Rs4 to Rs5 billion as against Rs382 billion collected during December, 2016 showing an increase of around 39 billion.

Moreover, figures of collection received in the treasuries of the remote areas may further swell the revenue figures.

Federal Board of Revenue also wishes to dispel the impression created by some reports appearing in sections of the press that the number of the returns received for the tax year 2017 has declined as compared to returns received for tax year 2016.

This impression is grossly misleading as only 953,410 returns were received upto December 31, 2016, the statement said and clarified that 1,158, 380 returns have been received till December 31, 2017.

This shows an increase of 21.5% in the number of returns received during the same period of previous fiscal year.

Also, since the last date of filing of returns of the corporate sector fell on Sunday, which is a public holiday, therefore returns and tax on the basis of returns of the corporate sector has spilled over in January, 2018.