ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) posted a growth of 16 per cent in revenue collection year-on-year to Rs263 billion in February 2018.

The monthly collection looks encouraging and the receipts received in the treasuries of remote areas may further swell the revenue figures, according to an official announcement issued here on Wednesday.

This year’s target has been fixed with an annual increase of around 19pc over the previous year. In the first eight months of FY18, the revenue collection recorded a growth of 17.65pc to Rs2,259bn versus Rs1,920bn in the corresponding period of last year. FBR has projected an annual revenue collection target of Rs4 trillion for 2017-18.

The revenue collection did not include receipts on account of book adjustments. The trend of the first eight months of 2017-18 augurs well for the efforts of FBR towards achievement of its assigned annual revenue target, added the announcement.

Federal Revenue Minister Haroon Akhtar Khan told Dawn that this accelerated growth began in July 2017 and has been maintained in February 2018.

He said that administrative measures were also being taken on a day-to-day basis to achieve the growth in revenue collection and claimed that every possible effort will be made to achieve the projected revenue target for the current fiscal year.

However, he said that there was no set target for July-February period and the field formations only have to maintain the annual 19pc benchmark in order to achieve the overall revenue collection target.

Another tax official said that robust growth was recorded in the collection of domestic sales tax and federal excise duties. The products from which receipts increased include cement, automobiles, sugar and cigarettes.

The collection on demand under income tax also increased especially from telecom companies.

Government has projected to keep the fiscal deficit at 4.6pc for FY18 by projecting to achieve a Rs4tr revenue target in its assurance to the International Monetary Fund last year.

But tax experts believe that revenue collection may reach around Rs3,892bn by end June 2018 which would be almost twice the revenue when PML-N took over the government in 2013.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2018