LAHORE: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has continued to display satisfactory performance in the fifth consecutive month of the current financial year and achieved provisional net revenue collection of over Rs 270 billion for the month of November, 2017 by recording an increase of around 24% over the revenue collected during the corresponding month of last fiscal year, the organisation said. Refunds during November were also issued to the tune of Rs 13 billion. Provisional net revenue collection was recorded at Rs 1302 billion for the first five months of the fiscal year with an increase of around 19.55% over the net revenue collected during the same period of last fiscal year. During fiscal year 2016-17, the collection for the first five months stood at Rs 1089 billion. Federal Board of Revenue also registered substantial growth in the number of returns received for the tax year 2017, up to November 30, as compared to returns received for tax year 2016 up to November 30, 2016. Only 746,022 returns were received up to November 30, 2016, whereas by 8 pm on November 30, 2017, a total of 991,187 returns had been received and the number was expected to increase. This showed a substantial increase of around 33% in the number of returns received during the same period of previous fiscal year. Published in Daily Times, December 3rd 2017.