FBR sustains Pkr 385 bn tax shortfall in Jul-Jan fy20.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sustained a whopping Rs385-billion tax shortfall in first seven months of the current fiscal year and the number of tax return filers has also declined by 16 percent amid prevailing uncertainty due to the uncertain future of FBR chairman.

With the widening tax shortfall, the federal government has also fast-tracked its preparations for a mini-budget and on Friday reviewed again the proposals to increase or slap 17 percent sales tax on dozens of items including agricultural inputs, industrial goods, agricultural machinery and consumable items.

One of the mini-budget proposals is to charge sales tax on around 50 items on their retail market prices against the current factory prices.

Since the number of tax return filers remains below 2.35 million, the government on Friday gave another extension in the last date to February 28 in the hope of matching last tax year's (2018) number of 2.8 million return filers.

Till January 31, about 2.336 million people had...