ISLAMABAD: A month after the federal budget was passed, the government has levied new taxes using administrative measures in a bid to shore up revenue collection after the agencies fell short of their first month target, sources reported.The need for such extraordinary measures arose after the Federal Board of Revenue fell short of its revenue collection target by Rs8 billion. The FBR was supposed to have collected Rs157 billion in July, and was only able to collect Rs143 billion.
The government has set itself an ambitious Rs3,104 billion tax collection target for the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2016 and is already off to a rocky start. In the fiscal 2016 budget, the government had imposed Rs238 billion in new taxes and is still unable to meet its targets despite that hefty rise in taxes. As a result, in addition to those new taxes, the government increased the taxes on fuel prices and the sales tax on electricity generated using already expensive diesel as fuel.