Miftah Ismail praises PTI govt's steps for revenue collection

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has praised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s steps for revenue collection and said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) data showed the net revenues of Rs4,858 billion during the first ten months of the current fiscal year, ARY News reported on Sunday.

Miftah Ismail said in a Twitter thread, “FBR has collected Rs 5122 billion in current FY (Jul 21- Apr 22) up from Rs 3981 billion during Jul 20-April 21, registering 28.7% growth. Refunds of Rs 264 b disbursed during Jul 21-Apr 22 compared to Rs 203 b paid last year, up by 30.1%. The FBR team deserves appreciation.”

He added, “A big factor in the increase however was increased imports. For instance, sales tax at import stage grew by 58% while it declined by 2% for local goods. With the right mix of policies and tools I am sure this team will perform even better & to the expectations of the nation.”

FBR has collected Rs 5122 billion in current FY (Jul 21- Apr 22) up from Rs 3981 billion during Jul 20-April 21, registering 28.7% growth. Refunds of Rs 264 b disbursed during Jul 21-Apr 22 compared to Rs 203 b paid last year, up by 30.1%. The FBR team deserves appreciation. 1/2

— Miftah Ismail (@MiftahIsmail) May 1, 2022

On the other hand, the present government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif removed the FBR chairman of Imran Khan’s era just after coming into power.

Former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin responded to Ismail’s tweet, saying that he should not remove the former FBR chairman if the institution has performed well.

Miftah Bhai, if FBR has done such a good job, you should not have changed its Chairman.

— Shaukat Tarin (@shaukat_tarin) May 1, 2022

Earlier in April, the federal government had appointed Muhammad Asim Ahmad as Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). He had replaced Dr Ashfaq Ahmed as new FBR chief.

Asim Ahmad is a Grade 21 officer employed at the FBR’s Inland Revenue Service (IRS). He had previously served as the Chairman of the FBR from 9 April to 24 August 2021 until he was replaced by Dr Ashfaq Ahmed. He also held the additional charge of a member of the information technology (IT) in the FBR.

Revenue collection data

Yesterday, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected net revenues of Rs4,858 billion during the first ten months of the current fiscal year (July-April 2021-22), showing a growth of 28.6 per cent over the collection of  Rs3,778 billion during the corresponding period of last year.

According to provisions figures shared by the FBR on Saturday, the collection during July-April (2021-22) also exceeded the target set for the period by Rs239 billion.

The claims of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) have proven false regarding the failure of the previous government led by Imran Khan as the latest statistics showed the growth in the tax revenue of the last 10 months of the fiscal year.