Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Salman Siddique has conveyed to the Chief Commissioners of the Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) that the achievement of the downward revised revenue collection target of Rs 1,588 billion is the major concern of the government.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Friday that the issue of shortfall in revenue collection during 2010-11 was discussed during the last Chief Commissioners conference held on April 12, 2011. During the conference, FBR Chairman informed the Chief Commissioners of LTUs/RTOs that the revenue collection is a major concern of the government. "No stone shall be left unturned to generate revenue". He said that the shortage of officers may be addressed to get maximum output.
He stressed the need of paying extra attention to the areas like demand created and recovered so that the assigned targets can be met. The Chairman appreciated the suggestions of Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Chief Commissioner, Regional Tax Office, Multan, that the revenue as well as number of taxpayers can be increased by lowering the tax rate. The Chairman also gave his concurrence to the decisions taken by FBR Member Inland Revenue (IR) during the conference. Tax authorities expressed hope that the team led by Khawar Khurshid Butt would achieve the targets by adopting efficient and cost-effective ways and means.
Sources said that the FBR also decided that the budget targets would be revisited and rationalised, keeping in view the revenue potential as well as the cases transferred to other LTUs/ RTOs in the remaining months of 2010-11. The Board fixed Rs 151.2 billion revenue collection target for April 2011 against the collection of Rs 116.9 billion in April 2010, reflecting an increase of 27 percent.
Sources said that the target of Rs 151.2 billion for April 2011 has been set to meet the downward revised revenue collection target of Rs 1,588 billion. Keeping in view the target of Rs 1588 billion, the FBR has to collect around Rs 576 billion in the last quarter of the current fiscal.
The tax managers are optimistic to collect Rs 151.2 billion in the period under review with more efforts on the direct taxes side and effective monitoring of withholding taxes in the remaining months. During the last quarter, the payment of advance tax and recovery of arrears in courts and collection of demands created would also be instrumental in collecting reasonable amount of revenue to meet the revised target of Rs 1588 billion.
The FBR has estimated to collect Rs 5 billion from lower rate of 4-6 percent sales tax on local supplies of five zero-rated sectors to unregistered persons in the remaining months of current fiscal. The government has estimated to generate additional revenue of Rs 53 billion through fresh taxation measures in the last quarter (April-June) 2010-2011. The measures included imposition of the 17 percent sales tax on fertilisers, agricultural tractors, pesticides, plant, machinery and equipment including its parts, and imposed 15 percent income tax surcharge for Tax Year 2011 and raise the rate of special excise duty (SED) from 1 percent to 2.5 percent.