ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs49.1 billion during the first month of the current fiscal year as against Rs46.2 billion collected during the same month of last year, indicating a growth of 6.27 per cent.

Provisional figures released here on Wednesday showed that the collection would increase further when the figures will be finalised in the next few weeks. However, the FBR did not mention any target fixed for the first month of the current fiscal year.This means that the revenue collection remained much behind the expected target to be projected for July 2007, as there was a minor growth of over six per cent over last year.

The revenue on account of direct taxes has shown a commendable increase of 38.1 per cent as Rs13.9 billion were collected during the month under review as against Rs10.1 billion.

The sales tax collection has been Rs25.1 billion against Rs24 billion, indicating a negligible growth of 4.4 per cent.