FBR surpasses Jan 2021 tax target, fetches Rs 364 billion

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs 364 billion in taxes during the month of January 2021, surpassing its monthly target for January 2021 which was set at Rs 340 billion, ARY NEWS reported on Saturday.

The FBR released its provisional revenue collection figures for the first seven months of the current year, showing a collection of Rs2570 billion net revenue during the July-January period, which has significantly exceeded the target of Rs2550 billion.

“This represents a growth of about 6.4% over the collection of Rs.2416 billion during the same period last year,” the tax collection body said.

The net collection for the month of January was Rs364 billion against a target of Rs340 billion, representing an increase of 12.3 percent over last January and 107 percent of the target. “This is the first double-digit monthly growth during the fiscal year,” said the FBR.

On the other hand, the tax body said that the gross collections increased from Rs.2464 billion to Rs.2699 billion, showing an increase of nearly 10 percent.

“The amount of refunds was Rs.129 billion compared to Rs.69 billion paid last year, showing an increase of 87 percent,” it said adding that this was reflective of FBR’s resolve to fast-track refunds to prevent liquidity issues of the industry.

It is pertinent to mention here that the FBR announced on 01, January 2021 that achieve over 99 percent tax target for the first six months of the ongoing fiscal year, 2020-21, after it collected net revenue of Rs 2,204 billion.

According to a handout issued by the FBR, a collection of Rs 2,204 billion tantamount to the highest collection of the FBR in the first six months of any year. “This collection within the first six months of the fiscal year is five percent more than the previous year,” it said.

While giving detail of taxes collected under separate heads, the FBR said that they received income tax of Rs816 billion, Rs 915 billion of sales tax, Rs127 billion of excise duty, and Rs 336 billion of customs duty during the period.

“We have also collected Rs10 billion under book adjustments,” the tax collection body said.

Further detailing the revenue collection during December 2020, it said that revenue of Rs508 billion was collected, achieving 97.7 percent of the tax target. “During the same month of the previous year, the tax collection stood at Rs469 billion, showing an 8.3 percent increase (Rs39 billion) in the ongoing year,” it said.