ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has suffered a massive revenue shortfall of Rs 225 billion during December 2022 as the tax machinery provisionally collected Rs 740 billion against the assigned target of Rs 965 billion.
The FBR has so far collected Rs 3.428 trillion in the first half (July-December) period of the current fiscal year against the assigned target of Rs 3.673 trillion. The FBR collected Rs 2.9 trillion in the same period (July-Dec) of the last financial year 2021-22.
According to the FBR’s official statement issued Saturday night, the Board has demonstrated a remarkable revenue collection performance in the first six months of the current financial year 2022-23 and has collected Rs 3,428 billion for the first six months of 2022-23 against Rs. 2,929 billion collected in the corresponding period of last year depicting an increase of 17 percent.
The FBR collected Rs. 740 billion for December 2022 against Rs. 599 billion in the same month last year, showing an impressive growth of almost 24% as compared to the same month last year. This performance is despite huge import compression and zero rating on petroleum.
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Direct tax collection continues to grow at a robust pace, which has shown a growth of 66% during December 2022 compared to December 2021, a clear indicator of the policy of shifting tax burden on the wealthy and affluent.
Direct tax collection for the first six months has also registered an unprecedented growth of 49%. This was achieved despite the fact that certain policy interventions having revenue impact of Rs. 250 billion introduced through Finance Act 2022 could not be implemented as these are sub judice in courts. Target for December was Rs. 965 billion which could not be achieved due to the aforementioned reason.
The revenue collection performance is also exceptional when viewed in the context that the FBR has also issued refunds of Rs.176 billion during the first half of the current financial year against Rs. 149 billion during the corresponding period of last year.
The FBR also appreciates all those taxpayers who contributed to this collection and recognizes the endeavors of all field formations and officers for their untiring efforts and commitment to optimize revenue collection in difficult times where taxes on imports have been showing negative growth.
The revenue collection figures are clear indicators for the achievement of the assigned revenue targets for current financial year. This unprecedented growth in tax revenues, especially direct taxes underscores the resolve of the Government and the FBR to make Pakistan a thriving nation.
The FBR hopes that when import restrictions are eased and court cases come to a logical conclusion, the lost revenue will also be retrieved during the current fiscal year.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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