FBR faces Rs157bn shortfall in April so far amid shake-up

ISLAMABAD: In the aftermath of massive reshuffle and making several officers OSD, the FBR is facing a gigantic task to materialise the desired tax collection target for April 2024. So far tax collection stood at Rs550 billion against the target of Rs707 billion.

It shows that the FBR is facing a mammoth revenue shortfall of Rs157 billion in the ongoing month.

Now the whole focus of FBR has shifted to the untimely reshuffle in top officers of the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) and Customs group. The officers associations held a meeting with the FBR chairman to convey their concerns.

To date, the FBR has collected around Rs550 billion till April 29, 2024 against the target of Rs707 billion. It is yet to be seen how much the FBR will collect on the last day April 30, 2024 in order to reduce the shortfall.

After securing consent of the IMF, the major target was readjusted for the last quarter (April-June) where the FBR would have to fetch tax of over Rs1.242 trillion in June 2024.

The monthly target for April 2024 has been fixed at Rs0.707 trillion while target of May 2024 is fixed at Rs 0.745 trillion for the current fiscal year.

The FBR had materialised collection of Rs6.71 trillion in the first nine months (July-March) period of the current fiscal against agreed target of Rs6.7 trillion with the IMF. However, the FBR requires Rs2.705 trillion in the last and fourth quarter (April-June) in order to achieve the assigned target of Rs9.415 trillion by June 30, 2024.

In the wake of slowdown in imports, it would be difficult for the FBR to achieve the desired target of Rs9.415 trillion. However, higher inflationary pressures have so far helped the FBR in jacking up revenues and showing growth of 30 percent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.