ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has failed to achieve the outgoing fiscal year’s revenue collection target of Rs2.605 trillion, which was already revised thrice, and collected Rs2.580tr, a shortfall of Rs25 billion.

The revenue collection grew by more than 14pc in 2014-15 compared to last year’s Rs2.255tr.

A senior tax official told Dawn that the data is provisional and that revenue collection will go up after finalisation of the figures in the next couple of weeks. “We are still collecting and compiling information from various banks and State Bank regarding deposits of taxes,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

The deadline for the payment of duty and taxes was 10pm on June 30 across the country, the official added.

The revenue target was originally set at Rs2.810tr for the outgoing fiscal year, but then revised to Rs2.605tr. So, considering the budgetary target, the shortfall expands to Rs230bn.

Critics say the failure is mainly because of poor governance and tax compliance issues.

The official said the revenue collection was mostly hit by the decline in oil and commodity prices on the international market. “The decline is also the outcome of no collection of general sales tax on the two projected revenue spinners,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2015

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