Federal Board of Revenue has provisionally collected net revenue of over and above Rs 1722 billion during first half (July-December) 2017-18 against Rs 1466 billion in the same period of last fiscal, recording an increase of around 17.5 percent. According to the data compiled by the FBR here on Sunday, the FBR remained on track to achieve annual collection target of Rs 4013 billion for 2017-18.
During the first half of the current financial year, FBR has recorded provisional net revenue collection of over Rs 1722 billion as against Rs 1466 billion collected during the same period of the previous fiscal year by recording an increase of around 17.5 percent over the revenue collected during the corresponding period of last fiscal year. These figures have been arrived at by taking reconciled figures of net revenue collected up to November, 2017 at Rs 1305 and provisional figures of Rs 417 billion for December, 2017. Refunds during the last period have been issued to the tune of Rs 58 billion as against Rs 45 billion issued during this year, depicting an increase of 28 percent during the corresponding period of previous fiscal year. The target for the year has been fixed with an annual increase of around 19 percent over the previous year.
The provisional collection for the month of December 2017 was Rs 417 billion excluding collection on account of book adjustments which may range between Rs 4 and Rs 5 billion as against Rs 382 billion collected during December, 2016 showing an increase of around 39 billion. Moreover, figures of collection received in the treasuries of the remote areas may further boost the revenue figures, FBR said.
Sources said that the domestic taxes have shown a higher growth as compared to collection of taxes including sales tax and withholding taxes on imports during the first half (July-December) 2017-18, reflecting a decrease in reliance on imports related taxes.
Sources told Business Recorder that almost all sectors of the economy have shown positive growth in revenue collection during the first half (July-December) 2017-18 as compared to growth in past years. As far as collection of taxes from imports is concerned, sales tax and withholding tax collection from imports has decreased which reflects reliance of taxes on domestic collection. It is very encouraging that the domestic taxes have played a major role in overall collection during first six months of 2017-18 as compared to sales tax and withholding tax collection from imports. The reliance on import-related taxes including sales tax/withholding taxes has been decreased during the first half of 2017-18, they added.
Federal Board of Revenue says it seeks to dispel the impression that the number of the returns received for the tax year 2017 has declined as compared to returns received for the tax year 2016. This impression is grossly misleading as only 953,410 returns were received up to December 31, 2016, whereas 1,158, 380 returns have been received till December 31, 2017. This shows an increase of 21.5% in the number of returns received during the same period of previous fiscal year. Also, since the last date of filing of returns of the corporate sector fell on Sunday, which is a public holiday, therefore returns and tax on the basis of returns of the corporate sector will spill over in January, 2018, FBR added.