July-March: Rs 458 billion shortfall in revenue collection

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has provisionally collected Rs3,063 billion during July-March (2019-2020) against the revised target of Rs3,521 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs458 billion.
Sources said that the current lockdown has caused huge revenue loss to the FBR, as revenue shortfall increased to Rs458 billion in first nine months (July-March) period of the current fiscal against the revised target of Rs3,521 billion.
The provisional figures of revenue collection of March 2020 showed that the FBR's net collection stood at Rs334 billion against the revised target of Rs595 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs261 billion.
Taking into account the continuing lockdown since coronavirus outbreak in Pakistan, the FBR estimated revenue loss within the range of Rs300 to Rs380 billion till June 2020.
The FBR official estimates show that the revenue collection could touch a maximum figure of Rs4.4 trillion.
The provisional revenue collection showed that the FBR's gross collection stood at Rs3,147 billion in the first nine months of 2019- 2020, however, the FBR paid refunds of Rs98.2 billion, resulting in net collection of Rs3,039 billion.
There was also book adjustment of Rs14.6 billion.
The FBR's net collection at provisional stage stood at Rs3,063 billion. The FBR had paid tax refunds of Rs59.5 billion in the same period of the last financial year.
The data revealed that despite a difficult situation, the FBR has been able to pay more tax refunds in the current fiscal year.
Breakup of revenue collection revealed that the sales tax collection amounted to Rs1.25 trillion during July-March against Rs1.04 trillion in the corresponding period of 2018-2019, reflecting an increase of 19.5 percent.
Income tax collection stood at Rs1.139 trillion during July-march 2019-2020 against Rs985 billion during the same period of 2019-2020, reflecting an increase of 15.6 percent.
Customs duty collection was Rs471.3 billion during July-March 2019-2020 against Rs507.6 billion in the corresponding period of 2018-2019, reflecting a decrease of 7.2 percent.
The collection of the FED was Rs187.54 billion during July-March 2019-2020 as against Rs162.98 billion in the corresponding period of 2018-2019, reflecting an increase of 15.1 percent.