AGP detects discrepancies in tax, refund figures of FBR, SBP

LAHORE: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) office has found variations of millions of rupees in the collection figures of tax receipts between Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), in its report for the financial year 2023-24.

In the Audit report prepared in 204-25, for the financial year of 2023-24, Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) during the scrutiny of the figures of tax receipts of SBP and statistics provided by the FBR that there was a variation of Rs 18,152 million in respect of income tax, customs, sales tax and federal excise duty.

The AGPR reported the FBR showed income tax collection figures of Rs 4,461,337 million while SBP figures stood at 4,477,815 million depicting a difference of Rs 16,478 million.

Similarly, in respect of customs, as against the FBR collection statistics of Rs 1,082,783 million, SBP tabulation showed a net figure at Rs 1,082,940 million depicting a difference of Rs157 million.

Moreover, a difference of Rs 6.721 million was found in respect of collection of sales tax as FBR and SBP reported net collection of Rs 3,086.832 million and Rs 3,080.111 million, respectively. According to the report, a discrepancy of Rs 8,238 million in federal excise duty collection was also recorded.

According to the report when the AGP office took up the matter with the FBR, its management replied that the audit has not taken into account the factors of “Book Adjustments and Export Development Surcharge (EDS)” as these are required to be added in the collection of SBP.

“Had these figures been already included in the SBP collection, there wouldn’t have been such huge variation as mentioned by the Audit,” according to FBR. However, according to Audit, after taking care of all adjusting/transfer entries, there should not have been any variations left between the FBR, AGPR & SBP figures.

The same issue was also reported earlier in the audit reports for the financial years 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 having a financial impact of Rs36,426 million, says the report under review. The recurrence of the same irregularity is a matter of serious concern, the audit report noted.

Apart from this, a variation 18,357 million in tax refund figures was also detected by the AGPR in respect of income tax, customs and sales tax refunds.

According to Audit, this situation may impair the true and fair presentation of financial statements because refund figures from external source i.e. SBP were on the lower side.

The SBP’s total was less than that of the amount tabulated by FBR. According to the FBR reply as mentioned in the report, FBR’s figures of refunds are based on PRAL’s dashboard which might include some adjustment under both “gross and “refunds” figures, particularly under the head of income tax and having no overall impact on the net figures.

However, Audit is of the view that after passing all the adjusting/transfer entries, there is still variation between FBR, AGPR and SBP figures.

Further, according to the report, scrutiny of the data of AGPR and data statements provided by FBR upto the month of June 2024 showed that there was a variation of Rs 259 million in respect of net tax receipts.

The report observed that the department replied that the Audit has compared the “net” figures of the SBP and the office of AGPR. Both the departments are responsible to explain their position in this matter. It would, therefore, be more appropriate if the subject audit observation is taken up by the Audit with the SBP and AGPR for an appropriate reply, the reported says.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025