FBR collects 99.7% tax revenue target for first six months of fiscal year

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has achieved over 99 percent tax target for the first six months of the ongoing fiscal year 2020-21 and has collected net revenue of Rs 2,204 billion.

According to details, the Federal Board of Revenue has said that tax refunds of Rs 102 billion were issued during the current financial year from July to December. The FBR has also released revenue figures for July-December. Revenue of Rs. 2,204 billion was collected in the first half of the current financial year, which is 5 percent more than Rs. 2,101 billion collected during the same period last year.

The FBR said that Rs. 816 billion has been collected from all over Pakistan in terms of income tax while a significant amount of Rs. 915 billion has been collected through sales tax. The board stated that the revenue collected under federal excise duty was Rs 127 billion while that of customs duty was Rs 336 billion. Revenue remained at its highest level during the first six months.

Revenue in December stood at Rs 508 billion, up 97.7 percent from the target of Rs 520 billion and 8.3 percent higher than Rs 469 billion in December last year. Revenue of Rs. 39 billion more than the revenue collected in December 2019. This is the highest revenue collected during the month of December.

According to the FBR spokesperson, refunds of Rs 102 billion have been issued from July to December this year, while the refunds issued last year were Rs 53 billion, which is about 90 percent more than last year. Besides, refunds of Rs 42 billion have also been released under the Prime Minister’s Corona Relief Package.

Despite the large number of refunds issued, the FBR has generated significant revenue compared to last year. Referring to the coronavirus, the FBR said there was no coronavirus epidemic last year and no economic activity was affected by the corona. Increased refunds have improved economic activity.