ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has provisionally collected net revenue of Rs2,204 billion during July-December (2020-21) against the assigned target of Rs2,210 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs6 billion.
The FBR Friday released the provisional revenue collection figures for the first six months of the current year.
According to the provisional data, the FBR has collected a net revenue of Rs2,204 billion, which is 99.7 percent of its six-monthly target of Rs2,210 for the current fiscal year from July to December, and which showed a growth of five percent over Rs2,101 billion which was collected during the same period last year.
Income tax collection for July to December stood at Rs816 billion.
Similarly, collection of sales tax, federal excise duty, and customs duty remained at Rs915 billion, Rs127 billion, and Rs336 billion, respectively.
Moreover, an additional Rs10 billion has been collected from book adjustment.
It is expected that revenue to be collected from book adjustment will increase in the coming days.
For the month of December only, the total collected revenue stood at Rs508 billion, which was 97.7 percent of the target of Rs520 billion, and showed a growth of 8.3 percent against 469 billion collected in last December.
This is the highest monthly growth during July-December period.
In the first six months of current fiscal year, refunds to the tune of Rs102 billion have been issued compared to Rs53 billion for the same period the last year.
This represents an increase of 90 percent in the issuance of refunds.
Moreover, under the Prime Minister’s Corona Relief Package, refunds of Rs42 billion have also been issued this year.
Despite excessive issuance of refunds this year, the FBR has managed to collect significantly more revenue in comparison to last year when Covid had not disrupted economic life.
Increased refunds have greatly helped boost the economic activity in the country.
The FBR’s appreciable performance demonstrates that despite the second wave of Covid, government policies have insulated the economy which is showing growing signs of economic revival across the broad spectrum of business activities.
During the first six months of current fiscal year, smuggled goods worth Rs30 billion have been seized as compared to seizures of Rs22 billion during the corresponding months of 2019.
After many years, the FBR has restored the sanctity of last date of filing of income tax return.
This has been welcomed by the taxpayers who have filed 2.3 million returns till 31st December compared to 2.17 million last year.
Income tax paid during filing of returns stood at Rs43.5 billion compared to only Rs28 billion deposited last year.
This shows an increased in tax deposit with returns of 55 percent.
The FBR is fully geared towards automation, e-audit, and simplification of procedures, e-payment of duty drawback so as to add to the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB).
The FBR has launched a single-page simplified income tax return form for SME manufacturers. The FBR has upgraded Iris system for issuing SMS and e-mails whenever any notice is issued or any assignment is created by tax officer.
The FBR has launched a system Maloomat-TaxRay, wherein, taxpayers’ can access all information available with the FBR by logging through a secure mechanism.
For further facilitation, this feature has been launched in mobile app, Tax Assan, so that taxpayers can easily access all such information. The FBR has established special committees to urgently resolve the complaints of the taxpayers.
Now, the taxpayers can file complaints through helpline, email, complaint portal, and registered post.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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