ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: The revenue collection shot up by 24.4 per cent during the first five months of the current fiscal year over the period last year, suggested data of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) issued on Tuesday.

In absolute term, the revenue collection reached Rs423.006 billion in July-Nov period of the current fiscal year against Rs340.067 billion over the corresponding period last year.

The statistics showed that the revenue collection surpassed the target of Rs413.2 billion by 2.37 per cent during the period mainly because of substantial growth in the general sales tax collection.

Provisional figures released here showed that the collection of direct taxes reached Rs132.212 billion in July-Nov this year against the target of Rs144.5 billion indicating a shortfall of Rs12.3 billion.

But the direct tax collection recorded a growth of 16.6 per when compared with the last year collection of Rs113.413 billion.

The revenue collection under the head of general sales tax (GST) surpassed the target by Rs11.3 billon as it stood at Rs185.1 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year against the target of Rs173.8 billion.

This impressive growth in the GST collection occurred on the back of 25 per cent inflation recorded in the period under review. However, the payment of GST refunds declined by 5.1 per cent to exporters as it stood at Rs11.448 billion this year against Rs12.069 billion paid out last year.

The GST collection recorded a hefty growth of 28.3 per cent in July-Nov period this year when compared with the last year collection of Rs143.998 billion.

The federal excise duty (FED) collection reached Rs44.3 billion in July-Nov period this year against the target of Rs41.2 billion projected for the same period last year, indicating a growth of Rs3 billion. This growth in FED collection was 39.2 per cent during the period under review when compared with the last year collection of Rs31.728 billion.

The customs duty collection reached Rs61.6 billion during the July-Nov period this year against the projected target of Rs53.7 billion set for the same period, indicating a growth of Rs7.9 billion.