ISLAMABAD, June 28, 2023: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is facing a shortfall of Rs75 billion in achieving the downward revised annual tax collection target of Rs7,200 billion in the outgoing financial year, The News reported.
The FBR collected Rs7,125 billion against the revised tax collection target of Rs7,200 billion, so the net revenue shortfall stood at Rs75 billion for the fiscal year 2022-2023.
The FBR’s annual tax collection target was set at Rs7,640 billion for the outgoing fiscal year in the aftermath of the mini-budget unveiled in February 2023.
The government had imposed Rs160 billion in additional taxes by hiking the GST rate from 17% to 18%, imposing a higher GST rate of 25% on luxury items and increasing the Federal Excise Duty (FED) by 154% on cigarettes.
However, the FBR failed to get additional revenues in the last four months, so the revenue collection target was revised downward from Rs7,640 billion to Rs7,200 billion for the end of June 2023.
Interestingly, Minister for Finance and Revenues Ishaq Dar highlighted the highest-ever tax collection for the outgoing fiscal year via tweet.
“FBR has collected Rs7,000 billion taxes for the first time in the history of the country till June 26, 2023,” adding that the revenue collection would further go up till June 30, 2023.
The FBR is expected to issue a formal statement on the revenue collection.