Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar has directed to ensure achieving financial targets in the remaining three quarters of the current fiscal year.

Addressing a meeting of the Federal Board of Revenue in Islamabad on Monday, he appreciated the steps taken for the improvement of financial affairs.

The meeting was briefed that 570 billion rupees have been transferred to the provinces during the first financial quarter while this was recorded at 416 billion rupees during this period of last fiscal year.

Finance Minister expressed satisfaction over the growth in revenue collections by FBR.

It was briefed that total collections of 765 billion rupees in first quarter this year reflects growth of over 20 percent compared to collections in first quarter.

It was also informed that overall deficit decreased to 0.9 percent in the first quarter of current financial year as compared to 1.3percent recorded in the first quarter of last year.