- FBR collects 7,343 billion rupees against RS7.947 billion in eight months.
- Agreement with IMF provisions Target RS9,168bn until March 31.
- The body of the tax must Collect 1,825 billion rupees during the current month.
Islamabad: With the government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with the first examination of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of the Loan Program, the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) looks at a huge tax deficit of 604 billion rupees during the current financial year, during the year ,, The news reported on Saturday.
With the objective of 9,168 billion rupees agreed with the IMF for March 31, the FBR will have to collect 1,825 billion rupees in March – a month marked by Ramadan, the holidays and fewer working days, in particular leading to Eid Ul Fitr.
According to the details available with the publication, the FBR recovered 7,343 billion rupees during the first eight months of the current financial year against the target of 7,947 billion rupees, witness to a deficit of 604 billion rupees.
Now, only two options have left with Pakistani negotiators: either request the IMF to reduce the objective of collecting FBR taxes, or use the available budgetary space due to a reduction in debt maintenance to maintain the desired budget deficit within the desired limits.
The talks of the upcoming IMF have become crucial following a massive deficit in the realization of the collection of income during the first eight months of the current financial year.
Keeping at the sight of this pace, we can assume that the objective of collecting income will miss the point of RS1,000 billion by June-June 2025.
The IMF examination mission is expected to arrive in Islamabad this weekend and Lance Parley from March 3 for the completion of the first review and the release of 1 billion slices under extended $ 7 billion fund (EFF).
Pakistan also applied for an increase in the EFF loan with an additional dollars under RSF to increase the loan amount to $ 8 billion.
Before the revision of the IMF parliays, the FBR was faced with shocks to materialize a huge income deficit during the outgoing month (February 2025) as it expanded to Rs136 billion.
The FBR could only perceive 847 billion rupees in February 2025 against the desired target of 983 billion rupees, so that the deficit amounted to 136 billion rupees.
The FBR raw collection in February 2025 amounted to 885 billion rupees, the tax machine of which issued reimbursements of 37 billion rupees, so that the net collection oscillated around 847 to 848 billion rupees.
The FBR collected RS347 billion in the form of income tax, sales tax of 367 billion rupees, of 106 billion rupees and 65 billion rupees as federal excise duties (Fed), in February 2025.
The income deficit continues to expand more with the adoption of each month, because the figure of the provisional collection for February 2025 shows that the FBR has made a collection of 847 billion rupees compared to the desired target of 983 billion rupees.
Ironically, the FBR collection in February 2025 was less than January 2025 when it had recovered 872 billion rupees. The deficit in the first seven months amounted to 468 billion rupees, so with the addition of RS136 billion in February, the overall deficit increased to 604 billion rupees in the first eight months of the current year.