Tax revenue increase by 17 per cent

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: In response to a news items published in some sections of press about tax revenue, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Wednesday clarified that it had collected a record Rs2407 billion in first seven months showing an increase of 17% over last year’s collection of Rs2062 Billion.

This increase has been registered despite a US $5 billion compression in imports, the board said in a statement issued here.

Last year, FBR collected income tax, sales tax and customs duty at import stage amounting to Rs.1005 billion which had only grown by 6% to Rs1066 billion consequent to the tremendous negative impact on customs duty and income tax collected at import stage.

On the other hand domestic collection has increased from Rs1066 billion last years’ to Rs1341 billion this year, showing unprecedented increase of 27%.

“It is evident that the aforementioned tremendous growth has been made possible by untiring efforts of FBR despite economic slowdown and without adopting any coercive measure,” the statement added.

The board expressed the hope that with upcoming economic turnover coupled with efforts of FBR, it would reach very close to its assigned targets.