Salaried Class Income Tax Increases Despite Overall Shortfall in FBR Collections

Despite a Rs50 billion shortfall in monthly tax collection, income tax from the salaried class witnessed a significant rise of 21%, according to national media reports on Friday.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) reported that salaried individuals paid Rs85 billion in income tax from July to August, compared to Rs70 billion collected from the same group during the same period last year. This reflects an increase of Rs15 billion, or 21%, in just two months.

Over the past year, total income tax collected from employed individuals amounted to Rs555 billion, indicating a year-on-year increase of Rs188 billion.

Breaking down the contributions, non-corporate employees paid over Rs41 billion, corporate employees Rs20 billion, provincial government employees Rs10.5 billion, and federal employees Rs7.6 billion in income tax. Meanwhile, a newly imposed tax on major pensioners yielded only Rs18 million in two months.

In other segments, tax collection from plot sales surged by 92% to Rs28 billion, while tax collected from property purchases declined by 12% to Rs13 billion.

In August alone, the FBR collected Rs901 billion against a target of Rs951 billion. For the first two months of the fiscal year, Rs1,663 billion was collected against a target of Rs1,698 billion, resulting in shortfalls of Rs50 billion in August and Rs35 billion overall from July to August. The total tax collection target for the current fiscal year is set at Rs14,131 billion.

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