ISLAMABAD: During January, 2016, according to the provisional figures received so far, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has made a net collection of around Rs. 209 billion as against Rs. 171 billion collected during January, 2015 showing an increase of 22%.

The target for the month was fixed at Rs. 205 billion which has also been achieved, said a statement issued by FBR here Monday.

The figure is expected to rise further. The net collection for the current seven months stood at 1594 billion showing an increase of over 19% from the corresponding period of the previous year.

The target for the current month has therefore been surpassed by around 4 billion.

The revenue collection trend during the first seven months of the financial year augurs well for the efforts of FBR towards achievement of the annual assigned revenue targets.

From July to December, 2015, FBR made a net collection of Rs. 1385 billion as against target of more than Rs. 1390 billion thus falling short by Rs 5 billion.

During the current month, not only the assigned target of Rs 205 billion was achieved, Rs 4 billion was also recouped in respect of the shortfall of the previous six months and thus the target for the first seven months has almost been achieved.

FBR was able to achieve the said target despite the challenges of reduced oil prices, drop in commodity prices and low inflation.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2016