FBR collects Rs684bn in first seven months

By Muhammad Toori

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected around 684 billion rupees during the first seven months of the fiscal year 2009-10, sources told Business Day quoting provisional figures.
According to the sources, during January, the revenue body has collected 104 billion rupees against the target of 124 billion rupees, whereas during the first six months of the current fiscal year it had collected 580 billion rupees.
During the last fiscal year, the revenue body had collected 628 billion rupees during the first seven months (July-January), and only 529 billion rupees in the remaining five months (February-June) were collected, with the revised target of 1,179 billion rupees.
In the current fiscal year if the annual revenue target is fixed at 1,396 billion rupees, the FBR will have to collect 712 billion rupees in the remaining five months (February-June) of FY2009-10, which would be, relatively, a big target to meet.
The Revenue Advisory Council (RAC) has opposed additional revenue generation measures of the FBR, keeping in view the current economic situation in the country. It was discussed in detail at the meeting of RAC, headed by Dr Hafeez Pasha, last month.
According to the council, the new taxation measures will not be recommended as it will adversely affect the general public and, therefore, it will not favour any new taxation measure.
The council has estimated that the revenue body can collect nearly 1,374 billion rupees against the target of 1,380 billion rupees by the end of the current fiscal year.
It also approved to bring down the revenue collection target of four per cent capital value tax (CVT) on immovable property on one kanal to five billion rupees against the target of 15 billion rupees for 2009-10, but now due to the directives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the new target is set at 1,396 billion rupees, which, according to the RAC, would be difficult to achieve.