SOHAIL SARFRAZ
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) actual tax shortfall stood at Rs 918 billion against the target of Rs 3,756 billion set for July-March (2019-20).
According to a report (Pakonomics) released by Ashfaq Tola of Tola Associates here on Sunday, FBR’s actual tax revenue during July-March (2019-20) amounted to Rs 2,838 billion [outstanding sales tax refunds are Rs.150 billion (accumulated due to rescinding of SRO 1125/2011), and advances are worth Rs.75 billion].
Therefore, FBR’s actual tax shortfall is Rs.918 billion vs. the target of Rs. 3,756 billion set for during July-March 2019-20.
The tax revenue collection of the FBR is reported at Rs. 3,063 billion during July-Mar 2019-20 vs. Rs. 2,690 billion last year, and has grown by 13% on a year-on-year basis.
The FBR, after a second revision by the IMF of its yearly target, needs to collect Rs. 1,965 billion within the next three months, which seems like a daunting task under the prevailing conditions. The revenue target for the FBR for the current year was revised downwards to Rs. 4,803 billion from Rs. 5,236 billion (which was also revised down from the initial target of Rs. 5.5 trillion) in 2019-20, it said.
Moreover, it may be noted that the IMF has now projected the FBR to collect Rs. 3,908 billion during the current fiscal year.
Renowned tax expert said that the FBR’s tax revenue collection target has been set at Rs. 6,138 billion for the next year, i.e 2020-21. This means that the FBR will have to raise 57% additional tax revenues when compared to the tax collection projected by the IMF for this year, i.e. Rs. 3,908 billion. Whereas, if we look at the tax projections for the year 2019-20, in terms of the revised tax target i.e. Rs 4,803 billion, the FBR will have to collect 27.8% additional tax revenue. Such a growth in FBR’s tax revenues seems highly unlikely considering the ongoing recession in the country. It may be noted that the IMF has, in light of the pandemic, projected the collection of FBR’s tax revenue to be Rs. 5,101 billion for the year 2020-21, report of Ashfaq Tola added.
