ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received 1,762,873 taxreturns against the returns of 1,307,067 of the corresponding period oflast year, showing an increase of 455,806 return filers in first eightmonths of current fiscal year.
By February, the FBR had collected revenues amounting Rs2,330 billionagainst the set targets of 2,566 billion, Member Inland Revenue Policy DrHameed Ateeq Sarwar said.
Briefing media here on Thursday, he said during the period under review,FBR had received 455,806 new tax returns against the same period of lastyear.
He said the government had fixed revenue collection targets at Rs4,398billion for fiscal year 2018-19 in order to tackle with the financialrequirements of the country, adding that it was set to collect Rs 2,566billion by end of last month (February).
He said an amount of Rs2,330 billion were collected as against the settarget, showing an shortfall of Rs. 236 billion.
He added the FBR was determined to bridge the gap by enhancing itsenforcement and bringing the potential tax payers under under tax net. Hesaid the main reasons behind the revenue shortfall was fluctuation inprices of petroleum products including LNG and furnace oil in internationalmarket as the government had decided to absorb these shocks by itself andreduced tax rates on PoL products to facilitate the common man in thecountry, adding it was provided accumulated revenue losses of Rs75 billion.
He said previous government step to increase the exemption on salariedincome from Rs. 400,000 to Rs. 112,000 created revenue shortfall of Rs. 35billion, besides an amount of Rs. 55 billion was faced due to governmentmeasures for fiscal correction.
The other reasons in revenue shortfall was attributed to import compressionthat was introduced to bridge the current account deficit that had broughtdown the imports and reduced revenues by Rs20 billion, adding accumulatedrevenue losses of Rs15 billion were faced due to other sectors includingcement, fertilizers and ban on the purchase of vehicles by the non-filers.
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The member FBR further informed that refund bounds worth Rs15 billion wereauctioned and the people had started to opt the schemes,adding that 78claims were so far received. He clarified that there was no change in taxon cash withdrawal from the banks, adding that it was still 0.6 up to cashwithdrawal of Rs. 50,000 for non-filers.
Hamid ateeq said there was no tax amnesty scheme was under consideration,adding that FBR was negotiating with chambers of commerce to promote taxfiling, adding that in first phase it would be introduced in federalcapital from April first.
Meanwhile, Member Inland Revenue Operations Seema Shakil told that duringcurrent enforcement campaign 424 raids conducted which raised revenuedemand of Rs 8.2 billion, adding Rs3.8 billion were recovered during thecampaign. She said during the campaign, 9 persons were arrested, where aswarrants were served to 2 persons, 46 vehicles and 78 bank accounts wereattached and recovered Rs. 8.2 billion.
She said the raids were suspended temporarily in mutual consensus of tradebodies and FBR as they had ensured the full tax compliance in a meetingwith Chairman of the board.
She said under broadening the tax base, 6000 new potential tax payers wereidentified in mega malls of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
