February 01, 2008	Friday	Muharram 22, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: Revenue collection dipped by Rs29.8 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year as it stood at Rs509.7 billion against the downward revised target of Rs539.5 billion projected for the same period.

Official figures released on Thursday by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) showed that the massive shortfall in revenue was mainly owing to decline in revenue realisation from income tax, followed by general sales tax (GST) during the period under review.

Although the revenue collection recorded a growth of 10.2 per cent in the first seven months of this year as compared to last year’s collection of Rs462.7 billion, a tax-wise break-up showed that income tax collection declined by 2.98 per cent to Rs191.5 billion during the period against Rs197.39 billion collected last year.

The statistics shows that the shortfall in revenue incurred in the first half year (July-December) had been made up to some extent in January 2008 as revenue collection surpassed the target by Rs5.2 billion over the target of Rs67.2 billion projected for the same month. The shortfall in the first half year was around Rs35 billion.

A senior tax official said it was likely that FBR tax collection in the months ahead may make up some more losses in revenue incurred during December 2007 owing to reduced working days of 15 on account of Eid holidays, Quaid-i-Azam’s birth anniversary, assassination of former prime minister and disturbances that followed the tragic event.

According to the official, the loss in the income tax collection was much more when compared with the target projected for the period.

The FBR has not issued the income tax target for the seven months. The income tax alone is facing around Rs26 billion shortfall during the period under review.

The official said the dip in the income tax collection would be slowly recovered in the months ahead.

Speaking at the quarterly conference of collectors of customs here on Thursday, FBR Chairman M Abdullah Yousuf has asked the collectors of customs to effectively check under-invoicing and mis-declarations as these were causing a loss worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer.

He called for plugging the leakages, and for initiating drives for quick recovery of outstanding arrears. He also laid stress on constant monitoring of exemptions regime.

Secretary of customs budget Mohammad Saleem said that the total customs duty collection for January 2008 registered a growth of 29.1 per cent and stood at Rs12.4 billion as against Rs9.6 billion in January 2007.