ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: The Federal Board of Revenue witnessed a six per cent decline in collection during the first two months of this fiscal year, it is learnt.

In absolute terms, the revenue collection reached to Rs218.882 billion in July-Aug period as against Rs232.781 billion collected in the corresponding period last year, reflecting a decline of Rs13.899 billion.

With the shortfall in the first two months, FBR is unlikely to achieve the collection target of Rs2.381 trillion for 2012-13. All the federal taxes are way behind from their respective targets for the current fiscal year excluding the collection from customs duties.

It seems that FBR may not reach closer to the last year’s collection of Rs1,883 billion. Last year too the revenue collection remained short of original target of Rs1,952 billion, by around Rs70 billion.

Official figures available with Dawn showed that even the payment of refunds witnessed a drastic decline of 68 per cent as it stood at Rs17.539 billion in July-Aug this year as against Rs54.726 billion paid during the same period last year.

This shows, according to the official, that FBR has withheld substantial amount under the head of refunds/rebate to show positive results this year.

Tax-wise break up showed that the domestic tax collection declined by 9.9 per cent to Rs186.096 billion in July-Aug 2012-13 as against Rs206.639 billion collected during the same period last year.

Of these the major decline was witnessed in the direct taxes which fell to Rs49.778 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal year as against Rs61.035 billion over the same period last year, showing a decline of 18.4 per cent.

The federal excise duty collection dropped by 41.3 per cent to Rs11.472 billion in July-Aug period as against Rs19.535 billion the same months last year. The FED collection on domestic products witnessed a drastic decline of 45.5 per cent. However, the FED collection on import witnessed a growth of 12.5 per cent.

The sales tax collection declined by one per cent to Rs124.846 billion in the two months under review against Rs126.069 billion collected in the corresponding period last year. The sales tax collection on domestic witnessed a decline of 6.5 per cent.A slight growth of 3.2 per cent in sales tax collection on import stage was recorded.

The customs collection recorded a substantial growth of 25.4 per cent as it stood at Rs32.786 billion in July-Aug period as against Rs26.142 billion over the corresponding period last year.