—Shabbar Zaidi says govt achieved 90pc of its revenue collection target

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) achieved 90 per cent of its revenue collection target set for the first two months of FY 2019-20.

In a Twitter post, FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi said that the FBR collected Rs297.4 billion this month, despite 8-10 non-working days. “So far, FBR’s target for FY2019-20 has been achieved to the extent of 90 per cent. [Rs] 580 billion against the target of [Rs] 644 billion,” the tweet said.

Alhamdulillah FBR collection in this month is 297.4B despite 8-10 non-working days. So far, FBR’s target for FY2019-20 has been achieved to the extent of 90%.

580 Billion against the target of 644 Billion. — Syed Shabbar Zaidi (@ShabarZaidi) August 31, 2019

“The positive aspects for the two months of FY2019-20 are that imports during the two months decreased by $1 billion,” he said, adding that the positive effect is taken into account, collection during the past two months is in line with the target.

The positive aspects for the two months of FY2019-20 are that imports during the two months decreased by $1 Billion. Therefore, if that positive effect is taken into account, collection during the past two months is in line with the target. Alhamdulillah. — Syed Shabbar Zaidi (@ShabarZaidi) September 1, 2019



Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hammad Azhar appreciated the positive result and said, “Excellent results by FBR by achieving 90 per cent of bold revenue target set for them.” He added that the break down in taxes show above 30 per cent growth in collection of inland sales and income tax.

“Residual 10 per cent shortfall coming due to the policy of import compression that is essential to reduce external deficits,” he added.

Earlier, Dawn reported that FBR had missed revenue collection target by Rs50 billion for the month of August.

This shortfall is in addition to the one recorded in the first month (Rs14 billion in July) of the current fiscal year, taking the total shortfall in revenue collection to Rs64 billion in just two months of the current fiscal year.

Against the target of Rs352 billion projected for the month of August 2019, the FBR managed to collect provisionally Rs302 billion, which is much below the government expectation in view of their claim to make record collection, it was reported.