ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sought a revision in tax target due to the shortage of revenue in the first seven months of Financial Year 2018-19.
An FBR Inland Revenue member, during a media briefing on Monday, said that the tax department has asked the finance minister to revise the tax target due to the shortage of revenue in the first seven months of FY19.
IR (Operation) member Seema Shakil said that the department had collected Rs2,060 billion in the first seven months against the target of Rs2,251 billion, adding that in January, revenue collection was recorded at Rs270 billion.
She explained that the department collected Rs621 billion in the head of income tax, which was lower by Rs8.7 billion when compared to the first seven months of the last fiscal.
In addition, she informed that the tax authority collected Rs326 billion in sales tax and Rs109 billion in federal excise duty during the period under review.
“During the first seven months, the department collected Rs1,003 billion on imports, an increase by Rs59 billion when compared to the first seven months of last fiscal year,” she stated, adding that there was a decrease in withholding tax as the department could collect Rs511 billion when compared to Rs552 billion collected during July-January 2017-18.
Besides this, she said that there was a shortage of Rs43 billion in taxes on petroleum products, as the department had estimated to collect Rs279 billion this year. The department had received Rs332 billion in the last fiscal through taxes on petroleum products.
She continued that the department would collect Rs15 billion on property tax this year as according to the available data of the first six months, the collection was recorded at Rs12 billion. “With the upward of property rates, we are hoping to collect Rs15 billion in the remaining five months.”
Explaining the reasons for revenue shortage, she said that the former government had given relief to salaried people while the court had also barred the department from collecting withholding tax on mobile phones.
