Raza Kazmi
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs. 1337 billion net revenue in the current Fiscal Year from July to October whereas it was Rs. 1288 billion in the previous year. Income Tax collection for July to October stood at Rs. 470 billion. Similarly, collection of Sales Tax, Federal Excise Duty, Customs Duty remained at Rs. 643 billion, Rs. 81 billion and Rs. 206 billion respectively. FBR has collected gross revenue of Rs. 1400 billion in the first four months from July to October which was Rs. 1323 billion in the previous year thus showing an increase of Rs. 77 billion in the current year. For the month of October only, the total collected revenue stood at Rs. 333 billion which was Rs. 325 billion in the same month last year.
In the first four months of current Fiscal Year, refunds to the tune of Rs. 128 billion against only Rs. 52 billion last year have been issued, which has greatly helped boost the economic activity in the country. The refunds issued during the month of October this year are over Rs. 15 billion which were Rs. 4.5 billion in the corresponding month last year. Despite increase in refunds, FBR has still managed to cross the revenue collection of October last year.
FBR’s appreciable performance is despite the fact that the economy has been sluggish in the wake of on-going COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the Government had extended significant tax relief measures to the public in the Finance Act, 2020 and there was drop in revenues at import stage at 2 %. However, the domestic revenues grew at 13 % in these four months which reflected taxpayers’ growing confidence on the revenue measures being taken by the present government.
During the first four months of current Fiscal Year, smuggled goods worth Rs. 21.48 billion have been seized as compared to seizures of Rs. 13.40 billion during the corresponding months of 2019.
FBR is fully geared towards automation, e-audit, and simplification of procedures, e-payment of duty draw back so as to add to Ease of Doing Business (EoDB). Furthermore, FBR has launched an effective crackdown against corruption, harassment, and misuse of authority. FBR has introduced a simplified one pager Income Tax Returns for the retailers in the current Tax Year. Moreover, FBR has also uploaded Income Tax Returns in Urdu and Regional languages for the retailers and salaried people. FBR has appealed the taxpayers to avail these facilitative measures and ensure filing to Annual Income Tax Returns before the last date i.e. 8th December, 2020.