SATURDAY JULY 23: Fiscal Year 2010-11: fiscal deficit at almost six percent of GDP

ISLAMABAD: The net revenue collection of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for 2010-11 stood at Rs 1550 billion against the annual target of Rs 1588 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs 38 billion. It is learnt here on Friday that the reconciled figures of the FBR for 2010-11 amounted to Rs 1550 billion.
Earlier, the figures of Rs 1590.462 billion were the gross revenue collection of 2010-11. The final figures of net revenue collection as on July 22, 2011 were Rs 1550 billion for 2010-11 against thrice downward revised target of Rs 1588 billion, showing a shortfall of Rs 38 billion. The net figures of Rs 1550 billion have been computed and calculated after refund payments and reconciliation of data during the period under review.
It is further learnt that if the FBR is able to meet the net revenue collection of Rs 1588 billion, the fiscal deficit would have stood at 5.7 percent of the GDP. The Rs 38 billion shortfall in revenue collection amounts to 0.2 percent of fiscal deficit while the shortfall caused by non-receipt of funds in the head of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) will have a 0.3 percent impact on fiscal deficit.
The government's failure to control the expenditure will cause an impact of 0.1 percent on the fiscal deficit. Thus, the fiscal deficit is expected to be 5.9 percent of the GDP for the 2010-11 against the target of 5.5 percent. If the Rs 120 billion payment to power companies by the government is taken into account, the fiscal deficit will swell to well above 6 percent of GDP.