ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Wednesday, directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to focus on the monthly target of Rs965 billion for December 2022, enabling the tax machinery to achieve the annual revenue collection target of Rs7,470 billion during the remaining period of 2022-23.
On Wednesday, Dar visited the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to review the updated position of revenue collection, reforms, enforcement, and operations.
The meeting chaired by the finance minister was held at the Skylight Conference Arena at the rooftop of the FBR House.
The meeting was attended by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Revenue Tariq Pasha, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Finance Tariq Bajwa, FBR Chairman Asim Ahmad, FBR Member Inland Revenue (Operations), FBR Member Customs (Operations) and FBR Member Inland Revenue (Policy), and other senior officers from the Finance Division.
In case of revenue shortfall, some new proposals under examination included additional customs duty (ADC) on imports, regularizsation of non-duty paid vehicles in erstwhile tribal areas and some kind of flood levy on the import of non-essential items.
Revenue collection: PM toughens FY23 target regardless of import contraction
The finance minister expressed satisfaction and appreciated the FBR team for their efforts in meeting the targets. He further extended his full support to the FBR in performance of their duties for revenue collection. The finance minister also stressed the FBR team to position themselves according to changes in economic outlook and advised the FBR rank and file to increase their efforts to achieve the true tax potential in the country.
Tax authorities briefed the finance minister in detail about the revenue collection position, strategy to meet revenue targets, broadening the tax base and recovery/ litigation. “The analysis of data for the month of December 2022 has been reviewed in detail during the said meeting,” sources said.
When asked about the possibility of increasing the revenue collection target of FBR, the sources said that under the current situation of import compression, it is not possible to increase the FBR’s tax collection target beyond Rs7,470 billion for 2022-23.
Chairman FBR Asim Ahmed welcomed the finance minister at the FBR and gave a detailed presentation on revenue targets and performance of FBR for the months of November and December 2022. He apprised the minister that FBR has surpassed the revenue collection targets till November and expressed hope to successfully meet its targets in remaining months of financial year 2022-23. The FBR is confident to achieve the assigned revenue collection target of Rs7,470 billion by the end of current fiscal year.
The break-up of the monthly tax collection target for December 2022 revealed that the income tax target has been set at Rs546 billion showing a growth of 113 percent. Sales tax target has been set at Rs273 billion, reflecting a growth of 20 per cent.
Dar obtained the briefing from the FBR on revenue collection, strategy to meet targets, reforms in the tax administration, new initiatives and broadening of the tax base. The minister was informed that the FBR has exceeded both targets of Rs2,680 billion set for July-November (2022-23) and the monthly target of Rs537 billion for November 2022.
The FBR continues to demonstrate excellent performance in revenue collection for the fifth consecutive month of the current financial year and has exceeded both the five months target of Rs2,680 billion, as well as, monthly target of Rs537 billion, despite import compression and zero rating on POL products. As per provisional figures, Rs2,688 billion has been collected against Rs2,330 billion collected during the corresponding period of the previous year by recording an increase of over 15.3 per cent. The FBR has also issued refunds to the tune of Rs135 billion as against Rs124 billion issued last year.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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