According to the official data avaialable, the overall sales tax collection, both at domestic and import stage was recorded at Rs 1547.84 million in FY 2016 compared to the collection of Rs 1317.77 million during FY2015.
The revenue collection at import stage witnessed increase of 31.23 percent while at domestic it witnessed negative growth of 3.2 percent.
The sales tax collection included Rs 968.34 million on import stage and Rs 561.5 million at domestic level during 2016 compared to the collection of Rs 737.87 million at import stage and Rs 579.9 million at domestic stage during fiscal year 2015.
Meanwhile, the customs on leather products at import stage witnessed increase of 67.53 percent during FY2016 compared to the collection of FY2015.
The customs duty on leather products was recorded at Rs 1010.87 million compared to the collection of Rs 603.37 million.
The withholding tax on imports witnessed increase of 21.75 percent during fiscal year 2016 compared to last year. The withholding tax on imports during year 2016 was recorded at Rs 361.26 compared to Rs 296.72 last year.
Meanwhile, the sales tax collections from the Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector increased by 12.12 percent during the fiscal year 2015-16 compared to the revenues of the last year.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected sales tax of Rs 612.048 billion from LSM sector in the FY16 compared to the collection of Rs 545.883 billion in FY15.
The collection is of those large scale manufacturers who are registered in the Large Taxpayers Units (LTU). Since the rate of Sales Tax has remained constant during the years under consideration, the amount collected has no bearing on inflation.
The FBR successfully achieved the revenue collection target of Rs 3,104 billion during the FY 16, without making any downward revision during the year under review, as has been the common practice of past.
The revenue collection showed 20 percent annual growth and an overall 60 percent growth compared to revenue collection in 2013 when the present government assumed responsibilities.
This significant increase in revenue collection would not only help the federal government but the funds to the provinces would also increase to carry out projects and programs of public benefit and interest.
Based on the performance of the last year, the board has fixed the revenue collection target for Fiscal Year 2016-17 as Rs 3,621 billion, keeping in view the improvement in economy and macro economic stabilization.
This would be an increase of ten percent in the overall revenue collection and it is likely to help the government to achieve the growth target of 5.7, the sources claimed.
Meanwhile, the FBR has been able to raise the number of filers of Income Tax returns to 1.1 million while measures are being taken to raise the cost of doing business for non filers so that they are compelled to become part of the tax system, the sources added.
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2016