The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Tuesday informed International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the tax machinery would be able to collect around Rs 4.5 trillion during 2019-20 keeping in view current economic situation and without taking additional revenue measures.

Sources told Business Recorder that the issue of further reduction in revenue collection target was discussed during the meeting of visiting the IMF team with the tax authorities on Tuesday.

Tax authorities further informed the IMF that if the government allows operational autonomy, increased enforcement and additional taxation measures, the revenue collection could touch the figure between Rs 4.6 trillion to Rs 4.7 trillion.

The FBR has requested the IMF to further reduce revenue collection target from Rs 5238 billion to Rs 4700 billion for 2019-20. At the time of budget (2019-20), the government fixed the target of Rs 5.5 trillion which was revised downward to Rs 5.238 trillion. According to senior FBR officials, the revised target of Rs 5.238 trillion is still unrealistic for the ongoing fiscal year. As per FBR's calculations, the tax machinery would be able to collect nearly Rs 4.5 trillion under current economic situation. The maximum collection could be between Rs 4.6 trillion and Rs 4.7 trillion in case further measures are taken to generate revenue.

During the meeting between the IMF and the FBR teams on Tuesday, no final decision was taken on further reduction in the revenue collection target for 2019-20.

FBR has provisionally collected Rs 2404 billion during July-January (2019-20) against the downward revised target of Rs 2622 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs 218 billion.

FBR has collected Rs 321 billion during January 2020 against the monthly target of Rs 425 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs 104 billion. The FBR has provisionally collected Rs 2404 billion during first seven months of (2019-20) against Rs 1794.9 billion during the corresponding period of 2018-19, reflecting an increase of Rs 609 billion.

During first six months (July-Dec) period of 2019-20, the FBR had collected Rs 2083 billion against the downward revised target of Rs 2197 billion. According to the FBR's data, the number of returns this year has shown a phenomenal increase of 40% over the same date last year. The number of returns for 2018 on January 31, 2019 was 1,645,828 which has increased to 2,342,642 on January 31, 2020 for tax year 2019 returns.