KARACHI: Despite the imposition of additional tax measures, including increase in sales tax rate on petroleum products, imposition of regulatory duties, and sending notices to prospective taxpayers, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) tax collection did not increase as per expectations, State Bank of Pakistan said in its report.

The tax collection saw a modest growth of 12.7 percent during July-March FY15, compared to 17.9 percent in the same period last year.

Within total FBR revenues, direct taxes showed a growth of 17.2 percent – a major part of which came from withholding taxes.

The largest source of FBR revenues is sales tax, which has showed a growth of only 6.1 percent during July-March FY15, compared with 20.5 percent in the same period last year.

Main reasons for this sluggish growth include lower collection from POL products and edible oil (which make about 50 percent of total sales tax) due to a sharp fall in

prices; and decline in sales tax collected from fertilizer and natural gas due to lower supplies.