Despite a massive revenue loss of over and above Rs 25 billion due to law and order situation in Karachi, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has managed to collect Rs 1270 billion during July-March (2011-2012) against Rs 1020 billion in the corresponding period last fiscal, reflecting a handsome growth of 25 percent.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that the FBR has provisionally collected Rs 161 billion in March 2012 taking the total collection to Rs 1270 billion during first three quarters of 2011-2012. The FBR has suffered huge revenue loss of over Rs 25 billion due to political unrest and law and order situation in Pakistan's economic hub, Karachi during last week. If the FBR has not suffered massive loss of Rs 25 billion due to severe loadshedding and law and order situation in Karachi, the revenue collection would have been over Rs 1295 billion during July-March (2011-2012). However, the effective monitoring and enforcement has helped the tax machinery to provisionally collect Rs 161 billion in March 2012. In current circumstances, the FBR has performed well due to internal efforts under the guidance of FBR Chairman Mumtaz Haider Rizvi.

These are provisional figures and revenue collection would further increase on compilation of final figures in coming days. The ongoing law and order situation in Karachi has adversely affected the revenue collection of the FBR. However, recovery of past arrears and outstanding liabilities from different sectors helped the department to generate additional revenue during the period under review.

So far, the provisional revenue collection stood at Rs 1270 billion during first nine months of 2011-2012 against Rs 1020 billion in the same period last fiscal. To cross the psychological barrier of Rs 1952 billion by the end of current fiscal, the tax machinery is required to collect Rs 682 billion in the remaining period of current fiscal. On average basis, the monthly revenue collection of Rs 227.33 billion is required in the last quarter of current fiscal to meet the revenue collection target of Rs 1952 billion. The existing growth of 25 percent in revenue collection is expected to be increased with improvement in industrial and business activities at the business hub of the country, sources said.

The ongoing efforts of Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue (IR) and monitoring of withholding taxes has enabled the Board to maintain momentum of growth in revenue collection during March 2012. Field formations tried their level best to meet the assigned revenue collection targets for March 2012.

The FBR House remained open on Saturday (March 30) till late night to review revenue collection progress of the Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs). The FBR team of tax managers headed by FBR Chairman Mumtaz Haider Rizvi and FBR Member Inland Revenue Shahid Hussain Asad are well aware of the current economic situation of the country and focused on updated figures of ongoing documentation exercise of Broadening the Tax Base and enforcement/administrative measures to recover the unpaid amount as admissible under the tax laws. Tax authorities are paying special attention to recovery of arrears, anti-smuggling measures, monitoring of withholding taxes and identification of new taxpayers, reflecting FBR's own efforts to generate additional revenue for meeting annual target of 2011-2012.

FBR's Taxpayer Audit Wing and Directorate General Withholding Taxes are also playing their important role in improving revenue collection during 2011-2012, sources added.

Following directives of the FBR Inland Revenue Wing, the field formations have intensified their efforts to enforce filing of returns and statements from persons registered with the income tax and sales tax departments.

The advance tax installment would also improve overall revenue collection of the FBR, sources added.

SOURCE: BUSINESS RECORDER