THE Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) surely deserves appreciation for its record tax collection during a month (December 2023) despite various odds and challenges. According to the Board, it collected Rs 1,021 billion during the month and reached a net collection of Rs 984 billion after adjusting refunds of Rs 38 billion. Targets for the month as well as for the first six months of the current fiscal year were also surpassed. The target for the first six months was Rs 4,425 billion which was surpassed by Rs.43 billion and a collection of Rs 4,468 billion was recorded.
The achievement shows a noticeable improvement in tax collection as targets have been surpassed despite the fact that the imports have contracted with a negative impact on revenue collection at the import stage. All this augurs well as the country cannot progress and prosper without augmenting the domestic resource base and reducing crippling reliance on external funding which is becoming scarce and also comes with strings attached. Apart from the FBR and its leadership, credit is also due to the tax-payers as the feat could not have been accomplished without their active cooperation and willingness to contribute to the national kitty. However, it is also a fact that the number of tax-payers is much lower than the actual potential of a population of 241.5 million as the tax-to-GDP ratio stands merely at 10.4%, below the Asia-Pacific average of 19.8%. No doubt, successive governments made efforts to increase this ratio but at the end of the day the burden increased only for the existing tax-payers while those with capacity to pay more avoided their responsibility through influence and connections with the corridors of power. Now the FBR claims it has collected necessary data including information from NADRA and on the basis of this exercise, notices are being issued to over eight million prospective tax-payers, who did not file their returns during the last two years. In a bid to put pressure on the non-filers to become filers, there are also plans to block CNIC and SIMs of violators besides disconnection of electricity and gas connections. While blocking of CNIC is understandable and might work as this national document has now become a must for carrying out day-to-day activities but disconnection of utility services could cause legal complications as a substantial number of meters are still in the name of original owners despite sale and re-sale of those properties, changing their actual ownership. Disconnection and then re-connection could also open a floodgate of corruption, adding to the miseries of the ordinary people and therefore, the decision needs to be reviewed.
