ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) missed the collection target for July by almost Rs2 billion amid a decline in imports, showed provisional data released on Monday.

The revenue collected in the first month of the current fiscal year amounted to Rs532 billion, falling short of the projected target of Rs534bn. “We will cross eventually the target for the month”, a senior tax official told Dawn.

He added that the revenue collection for the month is expected to exceed Rs535bn after necessary adjustments are made.

Contrary to this, the July collection grew 19.15pc from Rs462bn in the same month last year.

The government has projected a revenue collection target of Rs9.415tr for FY24 as against the revised collection of Rs7.2tr in FY23, showing an increase of Rs2.219tr or 30pc.

The government hopes to achieve the target based on the projected economic growth of 3.5pc, average inflation of 21pc and some revenue measures. The autonomous growth in revenue — to come from GDP growth and inflation — is projected at Rs1.76tr in 2023-24.

In FY23, FBR missed its annual budgetary collection target by almost Rs522bn, or 8.83pc, owing to a steep decline in dutiable imports as well as poor general sales tax performance. The revenue collection reached Rs7.118tr until June 27 as against Rs7.64tr projected for FY23.

The official said that the real impact of revenue collection at the import stage will come in the next couple of months.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2023