LTUs, RTOs told to achieve 2H revenue target at all costs

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Tariq Pasha Saturday directed Chief Commissioners of Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) to achieve assigned revenue collection targets at any cost in the second half (January-June) of 2017-18. It is learnt that the tax authorities have issued a stern warning to the senior officials of the field formations including commissioners and additional commissioners to ensure achievement of targets during the Chief Commissioner Conference held here on Saturday at the FBR Headquarters.
During the conference, FBR Chairman has also directed field formations to make extra efforts for achievement of the assigned targets and shortfall of December 2017 should be recovered in January 2018 at any cost.
Senior tax officials, who attended conference, dispelled impression that the FBR will withdraw performance allowance of commissioners, who failed to achieve the assign targets. Senior tax officials also observed that the conference has also not warned the chief commissioners for removal from their current position where targets have not been met. "Warning has been given to field formations who failed to achieve the targets, but there is no decision to take away the performance allowance or double pay package of senior officials in field formations, they added.
Officials said that the Federal Board of Revenue has witnessed shortfall of 2 percent in achievement of desired growth during July-December (2017-18) as provisional collection stood at Rs 1722 billion during first half of 2017-18 against Rs 1466 billion in same period last fiscal.
The FBR has envisaged 19.5 percent growth in monthly revenue collection for achieving the desired target of Rs 4,013 billion. The FBR has missed target of 19.5 percent growth in revenue collection during this period. The growth in revenue collection stood at 17.5 percent during July-December (2017-18), facing a shortfall of 2 percent.
The target for the year has been fixed with an annual increase of around 19.5 percent over the previous year. The growth during July-December (2017-18) stood at 17.5 percent, reflecting 2 percent decrease when compared with required 19.5 percent.
Official said that no quarterly or half-yearly budgetary target have been assigned to FBR. The target assigned to the FBR is to collect Rs 4,013 billion in the current fiscal year through generating revenue growth of 19.5 percent over the revenue collection for the last fiscal year.
According to official, the FBR remained on track to achieve annual collection target of Rs 4013 billion for 2017-18. The figure of Rs 1722 billion has been arrived at by taking reconciled figures of net revenue collected up to November, 2017 at Rs 1305 and provisional figures of Rs 417 billion for December, 2017. Refunds of Rs 58 billion were issued during July-December (2017-18) against Rs 45 billion same period last fiscal year, depicting an increase of 28 percent.