ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) claimed its collection posted approximately 13.6 per cent growth in the first two months of the current fiscal year, giving an elbow room to the new government in wake of a huge spending lined up.

In absolute terms, the provisional revenue collection reached Rs510bn in July-August FY18 as against Rs449bn collected over the corresponding months of last fiscal year.

FBR is expecting a few more billions when the book adjustments and other reconciliation of figures are finalised in the next couple of weeks.

The government has set the 2018-19 tax collection target at Rs4,435bn for FBR, which is 18.23pc more than Rs3, 751bn sum collected in 2017-18.

Further breakdown showed that the Inland Revenue Services — income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty — collection hit Rs405bn in July-August FY19 as against Rs364bn over the corresponding months of last year, reflecting an increase of 11.3pc.

The customs collection rose to Rs105bn in the first two months versus Rs85bn over similar period last year, recording a growth of 23.5pc.

A senior tax official said that FBR will have to maintain these robust growth trends in revenue collection in the coming months.

Finance Minister Asad Umar will formally review the performance of the revenue department from the next week. He has already posted a new chairman at the bureau to kick start reforms within the tax machinery.

The appointment of FBR chairman will be followed by a massive reshuffle within the department to appoint officers of integrity on key posts. It is also likely to reverse all those exemptions which were announced by the PML-N government at the end of its tenure.

Meanwhile, the FBR has extended last date of filing of income tax returns/statements for the tax year 2018.

According to a circular issued here by the FBR, the date for filing of income tax returns — through e-portal for salaried individuals — has been extended from Aug 31 to Sept 30.

Similarly, the date for filing final taxation statement was also extended to the end of September.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2018