KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs1.004 trillion during the first quarter ( July – September 2020) 4.68% higher as against Rs959 billion collected in the same quarter of the last fiscal year.
The revenue collection of Rs1,004 is also higher than Rs970 billion as assigned target for the quarter under review, FBR official handle tweeted.
The FBR said that it was the first time it had crossed the figure of Rs1 trillion in gross as well as net collection in first quarter of a fiscal year. The gross revenue stood at Rs.1052 billion.
The collection of income tax grew by 2.52 percent to Rs358 billion in July – September 2020 as compared with Rs349 billion in the same period of the last year.
The collection of sales tax posted 5.26 percent growth to Rs426 billion during first quarter of the current fiscal year as compared with Rs404.7 billion in the same quarter of the last year.
The collection of federal excise duty posted 12 percent growth to Rs56 billion during the quarter under review as against Rs50 billion collected in the same period of the last year.
The FBR collected customs duty to the tune of Rs164 billion during July-September 2020 as compared with Rs155.2 billion in the same period of the last year, showing an increase of 5.67 percent.
This is despite the fact that during the 1st quarter of the current fiscal year, refunds to the tune of Rs. 48 billion against only Rs. 26.5 billion last year have been issued, which has greatly helped boost the economic activity in the country.
FBR’s appreciable performance is despite the fact that the economy has been sluggish in the wake of on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, the government had extended significant tax relief measures to the public in the Finance Act, 2020. It also reflects taxpayers’ growing confidence on the revenue measures being taken by the present government.
FBR initiated revenue and facilitation related revitalization measures e.g. establishment of Large Taxpayers’ Unit Multan and Corporate Tax Office (CTO), Islamabad.
Furthermore, Pakistan Customs took extra ordinary measures to resolve the issues to Transit Trade resulting in bringing down the dwell time of en-route cargo containers till cross borders to 05 days from 30 days.
Another initiative taken on the directions of Prime Minister is that Transit Trade Facilitation portal has also been operationalized.
Pakistan Customs has launched a country wide operation against transportation, storage and sale of smuggled goods in coordination with LEAs.