July 5: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of Rs 1403.14 billion in the current fiscal year. However, the government has been able to collect only Rs 899 billion as of July 3.

According to the Ministry of Finance, this is about 64 percent of the revenue collection target. In order to collect the revenue as per the target of the current year, it is necessary to collect about Rs 500 billion in the current fiscal year which ends on July 16.

The finance ministry admitted that the revenue collection has slumped due to the decrease in the revenue collection from the customs following a decline in imports. Officials of the ministry also say that the tight monetary policy and weak investment in the private sector have caused problems in achieving the expected success in infrastructure development during this period.

According to the ministry, the trade deficit on the other hand has decreased due to the decline in imports, improvement in inflow of remittances and increase in arrival of tourists during the review period.

While the revenue collection target from customs was set at Rs 609.54 billion, only Rs 384.18 billion has been collected as of mid-June. This is only 61.29 percent of the target.

While the revenue collection target of Rs 524.34 billion has been set for the Inland Revenue Department, it has only collected Rs 410.82 billion so far. This is 70.15 percent of the target.

According to the ministry, domestic production and trade have decreased and domestic revenue has not increased as expected.

In terms of non-tax collection, the government has collected Rs 77.75 billion which is 11.88 percent more than the previous year.

During this period, the expenditure of the federal government has been Rs 1254 billion.

According to the ministry, the government has spent Rs 929 billion have been spent on current expenses, Rs 168 billion on capital expenditure, and Rs 155 billion on financial management.

In the current fiscal year, the government intends to raise the budget through revenue collection of Rs 1240 billion, foreign loan of Rs 242 billion and internal debt of Rs 256 billion.

The total budget announced for the current fiscal year was Rs 1793 billion, including the current expenditure of Rs 1183 billion, capital expenses of Rs 380 billion and financial management of Rs 230 billion.