ISLAMABAD: The revenue collection has posted a growth of 16 per cent in the first ten months of the current fiscal year.

In absolute terms, revenue collection reached Rs2,922 billion during the July-April FY18 as against Rs2,513bn over the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has already revised downward the budgetary revenue target to Rs3,935bn from Rs4,013bn, reflecting a shortfall of Rs78bn.

But even to achieve the revised target, FBR will have to collect Rs1,013bn in the next two months — May and June 2018. An official statement issued by the tax body said that the proceeds were recorded excluding collection on account of book adjustments.

The growth in collection is despite issuing Rs68bn in tax refunds during July-April FY18 as compared to Rs53bn during the same period of FY17, recording an increase of 28pc. However, exporters are still blaming government for withholding due refunds of exporters.

On a monthly basis, the provisional collection for April stood at Rs295bn excluding account of book adjustments versus Rs252bn during the corresponding month of 2016-17.

FBR has registered a rise of more than 17pc over the revenue collected during the April 2017. The revenue collection trend during the reviewed period augurs well for the efforts of FBR towards achievement of the assigned revised annual revenue targets, added the announcement.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2018