To ascertain the impact of taxation policy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the government of Pakistan to provide details of revenue collection during 2003-04 for an objective eighth review under Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF).
Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the IMF Staff Mission, due in the second week of March, has sought updated data pertaining to duties and taxes, audit and refund for evaluating progress made by tax authorities.
IMF has sought background information on the performance of customs duty, excise and income tax during fiscal 2003-04. Other details include total number of registered taxpayers and general sales tax (GST) collection including monthly data on sales tax, custom duty, direct taxes and excise duty, refund positions and number of audits completed.
The Fund mission has also asked the authorities to provide a list of new and renewed subsidies at the federal and provincial levels and possible budgetary impact of these subsidies.
The CBR has collected Rs 312 billion during July-February 2003-04 against Rs 271.7 billion collected during same period of last fiscal year, showing an increase of Rs 40.3 billion. The collection trend indicates that the tax agency would successfully surpass the laid down target of Rs 510 billion by the end of current financial year.
The CBR has already drafted simplified Sales Tax Refund Rules, to be announced in budget 2004-05, which would ensure prompt payment of sales tax refund, making the procedure less cumbersome for exporters with clean slate.
Moreover, the position of sales tax refund is very encouraging, as there is substantial growth of 12.6 percent in the payment of refund during the first seven months of the current fiscal year as compared to same period of last year.
IMF has also sought details regarding progress on CBR reform program. In this connection, the CBR is regularly convening meetings of the Steering Group to oversee reform process to remove the bottlenecks.
The speedy replication of large taxpayer units (LTUs), medium taxpayers units (MTUs) and Model Tax Offices is on the top of the agenda of reform program.
Speedy clearance of imported consignments and effective implementation of human resource strategy within the tax machinery has also shown significant improvement. CBR has taken a number of important steps for automation of data and minimising interaction between the tax officials and taxpayers.
Under the reforms, the audit function would be strengthened through independent quality reviews and audit parameters be imbedded in the Information Management System to identify returns/filings for further scrutiny.
In this regard, the CBR is implementing the Tax Reform Implementation Plan or strategy for revamping the tax machinery.
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