ISLAMABAD: As part of broadening of tax base, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received 2.9 million income tax returns for tax year 2020 as against 2.6m returns in the previous year, showing an increase of 12 per cent.

The tax deposited with income tax returns from salaried, non-salaried individuals, the association of persons and companies for the tax year 2020 was Rs50.6 billion compared to Rs33.1bn last year, an increase of 53 per cent.

The government has not extended last date from December 8, 2020. Until this period, FBR received only 1.8m returns. It means FBR received 1.1m returns from taxpayers between December 8, 2020 and April 30, 2021.

It was not clear whether the FBR will charge late filing surcharge on taxpayers or not. However, notices were already issued to the late return filers.

The FBR has also released information about tier-1 retailers who have been integrated with point-of-sales (POS) system. According to the information, 10,583 sales points have been integrated with Point of Sales Linked Invoicing System.

Last year, the FBR had held out an assurance to International Monetary Fund to register 20,000 tier-1 retailers with the automated system until June 2020. This deadline was missed largely because of the Covide-19 lockdown.

Revenue collection

Official figures released on Saturday showed that the FBR collected net revenue of Rs3,780bn during 10MFY21 exceeding the target of Rs3,637bn by Rs143bn. This represents a growth of about 14pc over the collection of Rs3,320bn during the same period last year.

According to FBR the improved revenue performance is a reflection of growing economic activities despite facing the challenge of the third wave of Covid-19. However, in the closing days of April, revenue collection slowed down considerably as measures to fight the pandemic were put in place.

Collections in May and June would be affected in case fighting pandemic reduces the space for economic activities, the FBR observed.

The net collection in April jumped by 57pc to Rs384bn against Rs242bn in same month last year. This year-on-year growth is unprecedented particularly as it is realised on the heel of 46pc growth in March. These figures would further improve before the close of the day and after book adjustments have been taken into account.

Customs duty

Pakistan Customs collected Rs606bn in 10MFY 21 exceeding the Rs507bn target by Rs99bn, or 20pc. Whereas in April it raised Rs65bn surpassing the Rs59bn target by over 10pc.

On the other hand, the gross collections increased 16pc to Rs3,976bn from Rs3,438bn during 10MFY20. The amount of refunds disbursed was Rs195bn compared to Rs118bn paid last year, an increase of 65pc.

Seizure of goods

The FBR said smuggled goods worth Rs4.54 billion were seized in April compared to Rs3.43bn in the same month last year, showing an increase of 32pc.

Similarly, in the first 10 months of 2020-21 smuggled goods worth Rs48.55bn were seized as compared to Rs31bn in 10MFY20, a staggering increase of 56pc.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2021