Finance Minister Aurangzeb vows to improve tax revenue

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has reiterated his commitment to strengthen the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and its supporting initiatives to enhance revenue collection, digitisation and economic development.

The minister expressed these views while chairing a meeting at the FBR headquarters on Monday to review the performance of the tax machinery. Chairman Zubair Tiwana and members of the board also attended the meeting.

The FBR collected Rs9.306 trillion in 2023-24 against the downward revised target of Rs9.252tr, exceeding the target by Rs54 billion.

An official announcement said that the finance minister expressed confidence in FBR’s capabilities and hoped that the board would continue to play a pivotal role in achieving the government’s fiscal objectives.

On the occasion, Mr Aurangzeb also cut a cake to celebrate the FBR’s performance for surpassing the collection target for 2023-24.

However, the FBR has recorded a shortfall of Rs109bn compared with the budgetary revenue target of Rs9.415tr for FY24.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2024