ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs was informed on Wednesday that the Federal board of Revenue has set a target of Rs1,070 billion for the first quarter of current fiscal year (2019-20).
The committee meeting was chaired by MNA Asad Umar in the Parliament House.
Briefing the committee, FBR’s Inland Revenue (Operation) Member Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar said that the revenue board had set an overall target of Rs643.6 billion for the months of July and August.
“In July and August 2019, the FBR managed to amass Rs579.4 billion in revenues, as compared to Rs505.8 billion collected in the correspondent period last year; an increase of 14.6pc,” he added.
Giving a further break-up of the revenue figures, he said during the month of July 2019, the FBR collected around Rs281.7 billion against a target of Rs291.5 billion. In the same month last year, the FBR had collected Rs255.6 billion.
Similarly, he said the target for August 2019 was fixed at Rs352.1 billion, of which the FBR managed to accumulate around Rs297.7 billion as provisional collection. The same in August 2018 was recorded at Rs250.2 billion.
“The revenue target for FY2019-20 is set at Rs5.55 trillion, which would require a growth of 45.5pc over the collections of the previous fiscal year (2018-19),” he maintained.
AUTOMATED SYSTEM
Meanwhile, a senior FBR official informed the committee that a mobile app has been launched by FBR in order to automate and simplify the registration of sales tax and income tax.
However, he added, the biometric verification process has been outsourced to the NADRA so that contact between tax collector and taxpayer could be minimized.
He said that automation, simplification and implementation of revenue measures were among the top priorities of the FBR.
MNAs Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Ali Pervaiz, Nafisa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Hina Rabbani Khar, Amjid Ali Khan, Faizullah, Chudhary Khalid Javed, Jawad Hussain and senior official of the Ministry of Finance attended the meeting.
