ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to take all the measures to meet the tax target. He assured full support on measures to achieve the revised tax collection target of Rs 3.5 trillion for the outgoing fiscal year.
The finance minister chaired a meeting at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday regarding the state of tax revenue collection in the current fiscal year. It is important to mention that June 28 was an official holiday. The FBR is faced with a daunting task of collecting Rs 660 billion in the last month of the outgoing fiscal year.
The Finance secretary, FBR chairman and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and the FBR attended the meeting. The chairman of the FBR briefed the minister on the state of tax revenue collected during FY 2016-17. He said that all efforts are being made to attain the collection target for the current fiscal year.
An official source said the finance minister was not happy with the FBR tax collection and directed the tax mandarins to take every step possible to achieve the tax collection target. The source said that tax shortfall was estimated around Rs 300 billion which the minister wanted to be minimised at every cost.
It is pertinent to mention here that the minister, before leaving for Saudi Arabia, chaired a meeting with the tax mandarins and directed them to take all measures to achieve the tax collection target.
The source said that FBR had taken extreme measures, like it attached accounts of the Islamabad Electric Supply Corporation (IESCO), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Saindak project. It helped a recovery of Rs 9.9 billion in taxes. Interestingly, sales tax of Rs 1.2 billion was deducted from the IESCO for electricity supply to Azad Kashmir which is exempted from GST collection.
However, the source said that the minister was not satisfied with the steps taken by the tax officials. The minister has directed taking extreme measures against all the potential public and private sector entities within the next two working days. He assured full support to the tax mandarins for any of their steps for tax collection within next two days.
It is important to mention that FBR collected Rs 2.8 trillion during July-May period of the current fiscal year, which is 9 per cent higher than the tax collection of Rs 213 billion of the same period of the last fiscal year. The FBR collected Rs 342 billion in the month of May which was 15 per cent higher than the same month’s collections during the last fiscal year.
The source said the tax collection target of Rs 660 billion in the last month of the fiscal year, which also happened to be the month of Ramzan, was impossible. All the steam generated in the month of May was lost due to the fasting month. The finance minister was not ready to further revise down the tax target from Rs 3.5 trillion which was revised downward from Rs 3.6 trillion.
