ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has provisionally collected Rs 512 billion in October 2022 against the assigned monthly target of Rs534 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs 22 billion.
The FBR’s provisional tax collection stood at Rs 2,147 billion during first four months (July-October) 2022-23 against the assigned target of Rs 2,143 billion, reflecting an increase of Rs 4 billion.
The FBR has provisionally collected Rs 512 billion in October 2022 against Rs 446.5 billion collected in October 2021, showing an increase of Rs 65.5 billion.
Meanwhile, the FBR has extended the date for filing of IT returns up to Nov 30, 2022 for all taxpayers who were required to file returns by September 30th, 2022.
So far, the FBR has not officially released revenue collection figures till filing of this report late Monday night. Business Recorder contacted the FBR spokesperson for provisional data, but he was not available for comments.
Keeping in view the revenue shortfall in the monthly collection of October 2022, the government would have to take the contingency revenue measures including imposition of sales tax on petroleum products.
The government has committed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to take contingency measures at the earliest signs of fiscal programme underperformance including: (i) immediate increase in the general sales tax (GST) on fuel, as a prelude to reaching the standard rate of 17 percent; (ii) further streamlining of GST exemptions including sugary drinks (Rs60 billion) and other unwarranted exemptions such as those benefiting exporters; and/or (iii) increasing Federal Excise Duty on Tier I and Tier II cigarettes by at least Rs 2/stick with immediate effect to raise at least another Rs 120 billion in revenue.
The FBR had collected net revenue of Rs685 billion during September against the target of Rs684 billion, which is 27 percent higher than the collection of September last year.
Similarly, the target of the first quarter of the current financial year was also surpassed by achieving Rs1,635 billion against the target of Rs1,609 billion and the growth is more than 17 percent for the quarter. The FBR has collected Rs27 billion in excess of the target.
In view of current flood situation in the country and requests from various trade bodies, tax bar associations and facilitation of general public, the Federal Board of Revenue has extended the date for filing of income tax returns up to Nov 30.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022