New year begins with a mammoth revenue shortfall in December

Having exceeded projections in the first five months of the current fiscal year, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) missed its collection target for December by almost 24 per cent, or Rs225 billion, owing to a sharp drop in imports as well as delay in collection of super tax from maximum taxpayers, showed provisional data on Saturday. The provisional revenue collection stood at Rs740bn in December as against the target of Rs965bn. This reversal of trend will make it a daunting task for FBR field formation to make a recovery from the huge shortfalls in the second half of FY23. However, December’s collection posted a 23.23pc growth when compared with last year’s Rs600.5bn. A few more billions will come to the government kitty when book adjustments are made in the next few days. As a result of December’s dip, the first half-year shortfall in revenue collection reached Rs218bn to Rs3.428 trillion against the target of Rs3.646tr. However, the collection rose 17pc in 1HFY23 against Rs2.929tr collected in July-December last year. This growth is much below what the government had committed to the International Monetary Fund to achieve the target for FY23.