Revenue shortfall grows to Rs211bn as govt touts fiscal numbers – Newspaper

KARACHI: The revenue collection in November grew 17 percent compared to last year to reach Rs334 billion, according to the president of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Shabbar Zaidi, in an afternoon tweet after that the monthly figures had been compiled. The figure is still short at Rs48bn of the November target, which causes the general revenue deficit this fiscal year to increase to Rs211bn.

The collection in the period from July to November was around Rs1.618 billion provisionally, where the objective for the period is Rs1.830tr. Growing deficiencies are fueling concern within certain sections of the business community that the government could resort to additional tax measures, a mini budget, to overcome the deficiencies before the end of the fiscal year. The government agreed to a very difficult revenue target of Rs5.5tr in the last budget, above Rs3.829tr collected last year.

The collection of income tax has been recorded in Rs573bn provisionally, against a target of Rs627bn, showing a deficit of Rs54bn. So far, reports say the FBR has received 1.59 million tax returns, much more than the same period last year, but they suggest that another million people who filed returns last year have yet to file this year. As a result, the FBR announced an extension in the deadline for filing statements until December 15.

Non-tax revenues jump over the profits of the State Bank

Sales tax collections have been provisionally recorded at Rs715bn where the objective was 754bn, showing a deficit of Rs39bn. The figure is Rs200bn higher than last year's sales tax collection in the same period; although industry leaders say the figure has been largely driven by the retention of export tax refund claims from exporters.

Customs duties did not reach their target at Rs76bn, reaching around Rs260bn, largely affected by the collapse of imports.

Meanwhile, the government claimed to be successful in its efforts to stabilize the economy and said that the primary balance in fiscal accounts, which excludes debt service payments from expenses, is now in surplus along with the current account deficit. .

Pakistan "has recorded the lowest fiscal deficit in the first quarter in 13 years," the Minister of Economic Affairs, Hammad Azhar, tweeted on Saturday night. “The current account has a surplus after four years. Foreign portfolio investment has returned to the country after three years. The stock market has risen 11,000 points since August 19. Pakistan has climbed 28 places in EoDB [Ease of Doing Business] "He also stated that the country has never seen" an economic crisis of magnitude as the PML (N) left the country in 2018. And has never seen [Pakistan] witnessed a more noticeable shift in economic crises towards stabilization like the one achieved by PTI in its first 15 months. "

The fiscal operations data for the first quarter published by the Ministry of Finance showed a surplus in the primary balance of Rs286bn, or 0.6pc of GDP. However, the general fiscal deficit, expressed as the difference between total expenditure and total income, was also recorded at Rs286bn. In the same quarter last year, the fiscal deficit was recorded at Rs541.677bn.

Revenues were driven by a massive increase in non-tax revenues in the first quarter that extended from July to September, going from Rs126.89bn last year to Rs346.14bn this year. This represents more than 56% of the incremental revenue collected in the first quarter of this fiscal year compared to the same period last year. The largest collection of non-tax revenues came from the profits of the State Bank, which grew in Rs135bn, reaching 0.8pc of GDP compared to 0.3pc in the same period last year. In terms of percentage of GDP, all other revenue heads showed no changes from their level last year.

Published on Dawn, December 1, 2019