ISLAMABAD (February 09, 2010): The federal government has re-promulgated the Finance Amendment Ordinance 2009 empowering tax officials to continue with making provisional assessment of the non-filers of income tax returns for the Tax Year 2009. Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that the Finance Amendment Ordinance 2009 has been recently re-promulgated on the harmonisation of sales tax, federal excise duty and income tax.

KARACHI (February 09, 2010): Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi has asked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to revise downwards its annual target of Rs 130 billion to Rs 95 billion; making the overall revenue target of Rs 1396 billion easier to achieve. Similar requisition has also been made by the RTO Karachi as over 100 revenue generating engines now fall in the jurisdiction of LTU.

KARACHI (February 09, 2010): How deep corruption has seeped into Pakistan's revenue collecting departments can be judged from the fact that Rs 50 billion in the customs department alone is shared among 250 officials, which comes to an average of about Rs 200 million per person per year.

ISLAMABAD (February 09, 2010): The Federal Board of Revenue will inform the International Monetary Fund that the tax machinery will be able to collect Rs 1,380 billion with the help of enforcement and administrative measures to generate additional revenue during 2009-10. A senior government official told Business Recorder on Monday that four FBR officials would participate in the IMF review meeting at Dubai from February 10-16, 2010.

FAISALABAD (February 09, 2010): Members of FBR auditors and Senior Auditors Welfare Association observed pen down strike, here Monday, and demanded that government should accept their demands in national interest. Malik Muhammad Afzal central leader of the FBR Auditors and Senior Auditors Welfare Association said that their grievances regarding their promotion still stands unresolved as the establishment had not approved the summary of their up-gradation sent by the Chairman, FBR.

LAHORE (February 09, 2010): Provincial Minister for Finance, Planning and Development Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira has said the Punjab government is considering setting up of a Board of Revenue at the provincial level on the pattern of Federal Board of Revenue. He said that there was a need for simplifying the system of all institutions responsible for tax collection so that industrialists and traders could deposit their taxes under one-window operation.

ISLAMABAD (February 08, 2010): The government has proposed 15 percent value-added tax (VAT) on import and local supply of aircraft, ships with gross tonnage exceeding 15 LDTs and poultry/cattle feeds with all ingredients, under the Federal VAT Act 2010.

ISLAMABAD (February 08, 2010): Over 800 sales tax auditors/senior auditors would go on countrywide strike from Monday (today) against the prolonged delay in their promotions within the new organisational structure of the Inland Revenue Service (IRS).

ISLAMABAD (February 08, 2010): A new value-added tax (VAT) return (form for declaring sales, turnover and other liabilities) would replace the existing combined sales tax and federal excise return from July 1, 2010 under the Federal VAT Act 2010.

KARACHI (February 07, 2010): The Sindh government is establishing Sindh Revenue Services to collect general sales tax (GST) on services after its transfer to the province by the Centre, it is learnt. The Sindh Revenue Services would work as an autonomous organisation, having capacity to undertake modern IT-based tax collection system with highly qualified staff, sources told Business Recorder on Saturday.