Tax collection exceeds target in January

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Tuesday announced that its net collection grew 22.6 per cent to Rs537 billion in January on a year-on-year basis, exceeding the Rs533bn target set for the month.However, the collection in the first seven months of 2022-23 fell short by Rs214bn or 5.12pc to Rs3.965 trillion against the target of Rs4.179tr. The tax authorities raised Rs3.965tr in July-January against Rs3.367tr in the corresponding period of last year, a growth of 18pc. This growth is much below what the government had committed to the International Monetary Fund to achieve the projected target of Rs7.47tr for FY23. The tax authorities have anticipated that the massive rupee depreciation along with prospective revenue measures and collection of super tax from maximum taxpayers in the next few months would bridge the shortfalls. An official announcement said that the third quarter of the current fiscal year started with an impressive performance and the FBR would meet the budgetary target despite economic challenges.