FBR exceeds tax collection target by Rs2b

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) exceeded its monthly target with a margin of mere Rs 2 billion as the tax machinery collected Rs443 billion in February 2022, primarily due to increasing imports, compared to the aim of Rs441 billion.

Now the FBR’s collection stands at Rs3,799 billion during the first eight months (July-Feb) of the current fiscal year, and to materialise the upward revised target of Rs6.1 trillion, the Board would have to collect Rs2.3 trillion in the remaining four months (March-June) of the financial year 2021-22.

The FBR’s tax collection target was jacked up from Rs5.8 trillion to Rs6.1 trillion by the end of June 2022 under the IMF agreement. The increased imports helped the FBR to exceed its target. In the last two months (December and January), the FBR failed to achieve its monthly target, but in February it surpassed the target with a slight margin of just Rs2 billion.

According to the FBR’s announcement made here on Monday night, the Board not only achieved its assigned target of Rs441 billion fixed for February, 2022 but also exceeded the same by Rs2 billion as it has collected Rs443 billion. The country's premier tax collection organisation has released the provisional revenue collection figures for the months July 2021 to February 2022 of the current Financial Year 2021-22. According to the provisional information, the FBR has collected net revenue of Rs3,799 billion during July, 2021 to February, 2022 of the current Financial Year 2021-22, which has exceeded the target by Rs268 billion. This represents a growth of about 30.3pc over the collection of Rs2,916 billion during the same period, last year.

The Inland Revenue (IR) collection increased by 29.0pc during July 2021 to February 2022 by collecting Rs3,177 billion against Rs2,463 billion collected in the same period, last year. Likewise, Pakistan Customs maintained its growth trajectory by collecting Rs622 billion as against Rs454 billion collected during the same period, last year.

The net collection for the month of February, 2022 realised Rs443 billion representing an increase of 28.3pc over Rs345 billion collected in February, 2021. These figures would further improve before the close of the day and after book adjustments are taken into account.

On the other hand, the gross collections increased from Rs3,074 billion during July 2020 to February, 2021 to Rs3,996 billion in current Financial Year July, 2021 to February, 2022, showing an increase of 30pc. Likewise, the amount of refunds disbursed was Rs197 billion during July, 2021 to January, 2022 compared to Rs157 billion paid last year, showing an increase of 25.4pc.

Originally published in The News