ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected revenues of Rs 765 billion during the first quarter (July- September) of the current fiscal year, showing an increase of 20 percent over the same period of last year.
According to official data, the revenue collections during the first quarter of last fiscal year (2016-17) were recorded at Rs634 billion.
On year-on-year basis, the revenue collection went up by 20 percent in September 2017 compared to the same month of last year.
During September 2017, according to the provisional figures received so far, FBR made net collection of more than Rs315 billion as against Rs263 billion collected during September 2016.
The revenue collection trend during the first three months of the financial year augurs well for the efforts of FBR towards achievement of the assigned annual revenue targets, official sources said.
The FBR achieved quarterly growth of over 20% during July-September 2017, whereas the required annual growth for achieving the assigned revenue collection target was 19.4%.
To put the performance in perspective, it may be noted that the growth of over 20% over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year has been recorded against 6.6% growth achieved during July-September 2016 over the corresponding period of fiscal year 2015-16.
The increase in growth of revenue collection becomes even more impressive when viewed in context of an increase of more than 110% in the amount of refunds issued in the first quarter of the current year as compared to the first quarter of the preceding year.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar Monday showed his satisfaction over the provisional revenue collection figures for the quarter ended September 30, 2017, and expressed confidence that the same trend would continue in future.
He expressed the hope that the entire team of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would not leave any stone unturned for achievement of assigned target during the remaining part of the fiscal year.