ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bring mini-budget if revenue targets, set for the first quarter (July-September) of the current financial year, were not achieved, sources disclosed to TheNation on Saturday. The sources said that the Finance Ministry had assured the IMF that new steps for revenue generation might be announced through presidential ordinances if tax authorities failed to achieve the revenue target of Rs 306 billion during the said period. The sources said that as per the agreement with IMF, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had to collect Rs 306 billion in the first quarter of 2009-10, Rs 78 billion in July, Rs 88 billion in August and Rs 140 billion in the month of September. When Chairman FBR Sohail Ahmad was contacted for his comments, he said that the government had other channels also apart from FBR to generate revenue, so revenue collection did not mean tax collection only. He said that the Finance Ministry had to look into its expenditures and resources and if it realised that the expenditures were increased or the promises of the Friend of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) could not be materialised, then the government might introduce new measures for revenue generation. He also said that it was too early to say that annual revenue collection of Rs 1379 billion would be achieved or not, however, he expressed hope that the target would be attained. He further said that tax target for the first quarter was not Rs 306 billion rather it was between Rs 270 and Rs 280 billion. Answering a question, he said that tax collection remained slow in the beginning of the current year, however, with the passage of time it got momentum and as the end of the year was approaching, revenue collection was also increasing. It is pertinent to mention here that in the Annual Budget, FBR has set Rs 1379 billion revenue target for the ongoing fiscal year. The IMF has showed concerns over the revenue collection. According to the international body, Pakistan is facing difficult situation owning domestic factors and global economy recession, which in turn is hampering tax collection in the country. The FBR has already missed the revenue target, set for the month of July, as the tax authorities were able to collect Rs 74 billion against the target of Rs 78 billion, showing Rs 4 billion cut in the very first month of 2009-10. According to the provisional figures, FBR has collected Rs 74.07 billion during the first month (July) of the fiscal year 2009-10, if compared with Rs 72.36 billion of July 2008, thus showing an increase of 2.4 per cent over the corresponding period of the last year.