The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Tuesday said that lowering fuel prices in the country would increase revenue losses as fuel consumption has gone down to 50 percent.

The FBR spokesman said that there was a consumption of 2000 million litres of fuel in the country, however, due to coronavirus lockdown, it witnessed a drastic decline of up to 50 percent.

“We have suffered revenue losses of around Rs45 billion,” he said and added that the government was lowering the fuel prices to facilitate the masses.

He further said that the tax collection has also suffered due to the pandemic and the income tax collection during March dropped from Rs500 billion to Rs300 billion. The income tax collection in the ongoing month will further decrease and remain at Rs200 billion, he said.

Shedding light on a special package for the construction industry, the FBR spokesman said that they would not ask the source of income from anyone who conveys to them regarding construction of a residence before December 31 this year.

However, the person had to construct the residence by September 2022, he said adding that same applies for builders and developers, who would not be asked of their income sources, if the FBR is apprised of the residential schemes before December 31. He said that they have allowed export of medical equipment to facilitate the fight against coronavirus.