A notification had been issued by the Federal Board of Revenue Pakistan on Thursday. In this notification, all chief commissioners of Large Taxpayers Units (LTUs), Regional Tax Offices (RTOs), and Corporate RTOs have been directed by the FBR to observe Saturday as normal working day till June 30, 2020.
With effect from 6th June 2020, all the field offices shall remain open on Saturdays till 30th June 2020. This is all done to enhance the efforts to meet the assigned revenue target of Rs.415.5 billion for the month of June 2020.
FBR resources confirmed the death of at least three tax officials due to coronavirus during the past two days. Islah ud Din, Assistant Commissioner, RTO Quetta died on coronavirus on June 04, 2020, and two other officials of RTO Faisalabad lost their lives due to the pandemic.
As per the sources, there were more than the above-mentioned cases as many are tested positive and many are yet to go through tests.
It is to be noted here that cases have been increased rapidly in the country during the last 10-15 days.
The first corona case was reported in Pakistan during February 2020 and then the Sindh province was the first to impose lockdown on March 23, 2020. This resulted in the halt of business activities and subsequently affected the revenue collection efforts.
As compared to the revenue of Rs.330 billion for the month of May 2019, the revenue for May 2020 shows a decline of 31 percent with a total of Rs.227 billion.
As per the sources of FBR, the same collection position would prevail during June 2020 as most of the collection was to be received of May 2020. The entire month of May was also under lockdown besides long holidays for Eid-ul-Fitr.
The total revenue of Rs.518 billion was collected by the FBR in June 2019. Considering the 31 percent decline in the collection, total revenue collection for June 2020 may be Rs.358 billion.
The FBR collected Rs.3518 billion during July – May 2019/2020 as compared with Rs3266 billion collected in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, showing a growth of 7.7 percent.