ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Asim Ahmed Tuesday expected a decrease in tax collections in upcoming months due to the current situation.

The FBR chairman briefed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Finance on tax collections in a meeting chaired by Qaiser Sheikh. The FBR chairman told the committee that there may be difficulties in tax collections in the coming months but no new taxes are currently proposed and they are trying to increase tax collections administratively.

Asim informed the committee that the International Monitory Fund (IMF) was satisfied with the performance of tax collections and further negotiations were ongoing. He said the income tax target has been achieved while the tax revenue has increased 16.6 percent this year but the target of sales tax and customs duty could not be met. FRB Chairman Asim said a tax target of Rs2144 billion was set from July to October and they have collected Rs2149 billion in this period.

The FBR chairman said due to fewer imports, tax collections are likely to decrease while there is a fear that the tax targets will not be met due to changes in the policy, Inflation and rising interest rates, depreciation of the rupee, a decrease in the rate of GDP, floods and cuts in development budgets and the current political and economic situation. Asim said imports will be down by 17 percent this year while it is likely to decrease by 20 percent in November.