The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs 201.7 billion during the month of December, making the total tax revenue collected in the first six months of the current fiscal to Rs 840.7 billion, compared to Rs 661.7 billion collected during the same period last year, an increase of 27.05 percent.
According to the provisional figures of its cash reporting system, the FBR had achieved its target for the first six months, Rs 840.1 billion.
FBR Chairman Salman Siddique told Pakistan Today that achieving the target for the first six month was a positive indication towards meeting the annual target of Rs 1,952 billion for 2011-12. He said through the broadening of tax base (BTB) campaign, all large taxpayer units (LTUs) and regional tax offices (RTOs) had intensified efforts to ensure maximum collection.
He said through the FBR’s Tax Revenue Reporting Mechanism, the break-up of the tax collection in income tax, sales tax, federal excise and custom would be available soon, while the consolidated figures by Auditor General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would be available in 10 days.
When contacted, an expert said revenue collection targets for the first half were traditionally kept on the lower side and higher targets were fixed for the second half. In the past, the FBR had used the technique of “end-loading”, meaning the targets for second half (January-June) were higher as compared to the first half of current fiscal year, he said.
In a letter sent to all field offices, the FBR has pointed out various causes of BTB campaign not getting its due importance due to factors including poor logistic support to BTB units, lack of ownership of the initiative, incomplete regional databases, human resource weaknesses and inadequate IT infrastructure.
The chief commissioners were asked to own the BTB initiative and to shoulder the responsibility of this key objective. It recommends evaluation and subsequent strengthening of existing physical and human resources, allocating the best resources and establishing new structure of BTB Zones and Ranges to achieve the 2011-12 BTB targets.
Keeping in view on-the-ground situation, new BTB targets (over 700,000 new taxpayers) have also been assigned, along with the recommended steps to achieve these targets. The FBR is going to contact 300,000 non tax filers by January 12, 2012 and would have to collect Rs 1,111.3 billion more to achieve the target.
