ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) collection exceeded the collection target by Rs20bn to Rs770 billion for the second quarter (October-December) of this fiscal year, showed provisional figures released on Thursday.

The surpassing of target is unprecedented because in the past few years the FBR has never been able to achieve revised targets.

The revenue collection grew 21.4 per cent when compared with the last year’s Rs634.2bn collected during October-December 2014.

In the first quarter (July-September) 2015-16, the FBR’s collection recorded a shortfall of Rs40bn and to bridge this gap the government recently introduced regulatory duties on luxury and non-essential items.

“We have reduced the revenue shortfalls by Rs20bn in the second quarter,” FBR official Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Iqbal told Dawn.

He claims the remaining amount will be realised in the third quarter (January-March) of the current fiscal year.

During the first six months (July-December) 2015-16, the tax authorities collected Rs1,370.3bn as against Rs1,172bn in the same period last year.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2016