Announcement of tax collection figure: FBR adopted cautious approach on June 30

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) adopted a cautious approach on June 30, the last day of the fiscal year, and did not opt to hold a press conference to announce provisional revenue collection figures as it did on June 30, 2011 when the then FBR Chairman Salman Siddiqui announced gross revenue figure of Rs. 1590 billion as net revenue compelling the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) to take suo motu notice.

Tax experts told Business Recorder here on Monday that traditionally the FBR conducts a press conference or issues official press release every year to announce provisional revenue collection figure but this year tax authorities opted to focus on compilation of data from field formations to meet the ambitious revenue collection target of Rs. 1952 billion for 2012-2012.

When contacted sources revealed that the FBR reached a record high in terms of revenue collection of Rs. 1905 billion in 2011-12, including Rs. 21 billion collected by the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB), giving a shortfall of Rs. 47 billion from what was budgeted for the year.

The FBR reportedly collected Rs. 35.967 billion on the last day of June 2012. The FBR will shortly share tax-wise breakup of revenue collection in coming days on compilation of final figures for 2011-12, according to sources.

The FBR officials are optimistic that Rs. 1910-1920 billion will be reached on compilation of final figures in coming days. This whopping target is an achievement, sources claim, given pending litigation in courts to the tune of billions of rupees, load shedding of power and gas, law and order situation and slowdown of manufacturing activity in the country.

The budgetary target of Rs. 1667 billion was revised downward to Rs. 1604 billion during 2010-11. The revised target of Rs. 1604 billion was further scaled down to Rs. 1588 billion in 2010-11. The net revenue collection of the FBR stood at Rs. 1550 billion for 2010-11 against thrice downward revised target of Rs. 1588 billion. In contrast the FBR did not revise the revenue collection target of Rs. 1952 billion set in budget 2011-12.