ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is facing an uphill task for meeting tax collection target of Rs1,003 billion for November 2024 without taking additional taxation measures or mini-budget.
Sources told Business Recorder that the tax collection stood at over Rs550 billion till November 25, 2024, against the assigned target of Rs1,003 billion during the current month.
The FBR is facing a gigantic task to collect Rs1,003 billion during November 2024 without imposing new taxes or raise in the tax rates of withholding tax rates.
The government has repeatedly announced that no mini-budget would be introduced to generate additional revenue in second quarter of current fiscal year.
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The FBR has implemented short-term measures to reduce anticipated shortfall of over Rs230 billion in the second quarter (October-December) 2024-25.
Field formations would issue notices to the high-net worth individuals. In the first phase, the FBR will issue notices to 5,000 non-filers, with an estimated tax liability of Rs7 billion.
The tax machinery has collected Rs877 billion during October 2024 against an assigned target of Rs980 billion, reflec-ting a shortfall of Rs103 billion.
The FBR has collected Rs3,440 billion during first four months of 2024-25 against the assigned target of Rs3,636 billion set for July-October of current fiscal, reflecting a shortfall of Rs196 billion.
They added that the economic assumptions including GDP growth, imports, inflation and growth in large-scale manufacturing, used for setting the tax collection target for 2024-25 have been changed. Therefore, short-term and long-term measures have been finalised to tackle the expected shortfall in tax collection in the remaining period of 2024-25.
There were assumptions that the policy measures in shape of raising tax rates would generate Rs320 billion from enforcement measures.
The FBR has estimated tax liability of Rs7 billion to be recovered from these non-filers. The tracking of these non-filers would be done through dedicated dash board of FBR.
Under the contingency revenue measures the government has agreed to increase federal excise duty (FED) on aerated/ sugary drinks and raise withholding tax rates on the import of machinery/ raw materials and contracts/ supplies/ services to generate additional revenue of Rs10.8 billion per month during 2024-25.
The revenue impact of these seven contingency revenue measures is projected at Rs97.2 billion in the remaining three quarters (October-June) of 2024-25.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024