January 16: The government’s revenue collection has suffered a setback in the first six month of the current fiscal year. According to the Ministry of Finance, the country collected Rs 490.4 billion revenue against the target of Rs 651.61 billion as of mid-January this year. This is 75.2 per cent of the half-yearly revenue collection target.    
During the review period, the revenue from customs suffered the most.    
As per the data of the ministry, customs revenue collection is just 53 per cent of the target estimated for the first six months of current fiscal year. The government had planned to collect Rs 161.82 billion from the customs revenue during this period but the collection is just Rs 85.78 billion.    
Similarly, the collection of VAT and excise duty is also only 72 per cent of the target. The government had planned to collect Rs 180.24 billion from VAT in the review period.    
Likewise, the government had planned to collect Rs 97.51 billion from excise duty but only Rs 70.51 billion was collected during this period.    
The ministry said that a total of Rs 116.79 billion in income tax was collected in this period, which is just 74.3 per cent of the government’s target.    
However, the tax under the education service has been collected as per the government estimates during the review period. Of the target of Rs 734.8 million, the government collected Rs 736.7 million in education service tax.    
The ministry shared that the revenue collection in the first six months of the current fiscal year has dropped by 15.32 per cent against the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.    
The ministry stated that revenue collection has been marred due to government measures taken to discourage imports. Likewise, slow business of real estate and bearish trend in the share market also affected the collection of capital gains tax during the review period.  -- RSS