First half tax collection exceeds target

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has exceeded its December target by Rs7 billion due to the timely clearance of liquefied natural gas shipments as well as impressive domestic sales tax collection aided by historic inflation. The revenue collection in December stood at Rs982bn against a projected target of Rs975bn. The revenue collection increased by 34pc when compared with Rs732bn over the corresponding month last year. These figures would further improve by at least Rs1.5bn before the close of the month on Sunday and after book adjustments have been taken into account. Aside from the LNG cargoes cleared at the start of the week, the cargo cleared on Saturday resulted in a revenue collection of Rs3.7bn. During the first half (July-December) of FY24, the FBR collected Rs4.467 trillion, exceeding the Rs4.425tr target by Rs42bn, according to provisional data released on Saturday.