Revenue collection target missed

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) missed its collection target by almost 17.57 per cent, or Rs103 billion, for April owing to a steep decline in imports as well as poor sales tax performance, showed provisional data on Tuesday. The revenue collection stood at Rs483bn in April as against the target of Rs586bn. This reversal of trend will make it a daunting task for the FBR field formations to make a huge recovery in May-June to achieve the annual target. However, April’s collection posted no growth when compared with last year’s Rs483bn. A few more billion may come to the government kitty when book adjustments are made in next few days. As a result of April’s dip, the shortfall widened to Rs381bn as total collection stood at Rs5.638 trillion in 10MFY23 against the target of Rs6.019tr. The tax authorities, however, recorded a 15.67pc growth over Rs4.874tr collected in July-April FY22.