ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday the country’s tax collection authority had achieved its revenue target for the month of February by collecting Rs527.2 billion, a growth of 17 percent compared to February 2022.
The announcement comes as the cash-strapped country undertakes key measures to secure a $1 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including raising taxes, and removing blanket subsidies and artificial curbs on the exchange rate.
To comply with IMF conditionalities, the Pakistani parliament last month approved the Finance Supplementary Bill 2023 for the collection of additional taxes of Rs170 billion.
“[The] FBR achieved revenue target for Feb 2023 by collecting Rs 527.2 billion, registering [a] growth of 17 percent compared to the same month last year,” the finance minister announced in a Twitter post.
“Cumulatively, [the] FBR has collected Rs4,493 billion in [the] first eight months of CFY23 against Rs3,820 billion in the corresponding period last year depicting year-on-year growth of 18 percent.”
Dar lauded the country’s tax collection body for its “impressive performance” during the third quarter of the current fiscal year and said the performance showed the FBR’s commitment to achieving a revised upward annual budgetary revenue target of Rs. 7,640 billion despite economic challenges.
Pakistan’s central bank is widely expected to raise its key policy rate by 200 basis points in an off-cycle meeting tomorrow, Thursday, as it struggles to unlock the critical IMF funding.
