ISLAMABAD - The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has to collect taxes worth Rs 148 billion in just ten days (June 21 to June 30) to achieve the twice-revised annual revenue collection target of Rs 2275 billion set for the outgoing financial year 2013-2014.
The FBR has provisionally collected Rs 2127 billion during so far period (July to June 20) of the outgoing fiscal year 2013-2014”, said Shahid Hussain Asad, Senior Member Inland Revenue FBR, while talking to The Nation on Saturday. Shahid Hussain Asad informed that FBR has accumulated Rs 170 billion during 20 days of the ongoing month of June, which would further increase in next few days.  It is worth mentioning here that FBR’s tax collection target for the present month of June 2014 was Rs 318 billion wherein it collected Rs 170 billion in twenty days and has to collect Rs 148 billion in remaining ten days of the month. Past trend revealed that the maximum amount of revenue collection has been witnessed in the last weeks of June.
Sources informed that FBR would be unable to achieve the revised target of Rs 2275 billion without additional taxation measures. Therefore, the tax department has asked the companies, association of persons and individuals to pay their quarterly installment of advance income tax before June 16 this year. The tax department was expecting to collect up to Rs 40 billion through advance taxes.
Similarly, the FBR has taken revenue generation measures that were incorporated in Finance Bill prior to its approval from the National Assembly. The FBR has also already started implementing taxation measures announced in budget through Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs) prior to its approval from the parliament apparently to generate additional revenue. FBR also issued SRO 420 to impose 17 percent sales tax on imported leather goods and garments. Through SRO 421, the FBR increased sales tax on steel melters and re-rollers to Rs7 per electricity unit, up from Rs4. It also increased sales tax on supply of ship plates to Rs6, 700 per ton from Rs5, 862.
The government has revised twice its revenue collection target for the outgoing fiscal year, once from Rs 2475 billion to Rs 2345 billion and then to Rs 2275 billion. The FBR has collected Rs 1956 billion in eleven months (July to May) of the outgoing financial year as against Rs 1685 billion of the corresponding period last year, showing an increase of over 16 per cent.