Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Sohail Ahmad has said that the revenue collection target of Rs 295 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2010-11 could not be achieved due to devastating floods in recent months. However, inflow of foreign and local aid during the reconstruction process would have a positive impact on the economy, which would also improve collections in the coming months of 2010-2011.
He was talking to media after the concluding session of a seminar on 'Harassment of Women at Work Place ACT-2010' organised by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) here at the Pakistan National Library on Thursday. Sohail Ahmad said that the impact of floods on revenue collection could be around 10 percent. Even if there is a shortfall in revenue collection in the next 3-4 months, the momentum of collection would again pickup in the remaining months of 2010-2011. The foreign and local aid during the reconstruction process in the flood-affected areas would also have a positive impact on the overall revenue collection.
When asked about promulgation of a Presidential Ordinance or Bill in Parliament on Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST), he said that, "it could be anything depending on the decision of the government". He said that following a clearance from the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the draft of the RGST would be made public for comments and it is expected that the Parliament would approve the draft for introducing reforms in the sales tax regime.
Without specifying the exact exemptions to be withdrawn, the FBR Chief said that a large number of sales tax exemptions would be withdrawn under the RGST. Responding to a query on World Bank observation on audit, FBR Chairman said that the audit through random balloting has ended and from 2010-2011 only risk-based audit would be conducted depending on the taxpayers' profiles.
He said that the FBR has collected Rs 290 billion during first quarter of (2010-2011) against the target of Rs 295 billion. The FBR's collection of Rs 290 billion during July-September of 2010-2011 has shown an increase of 9-10 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal. About the anti-smuggling plan, Sohail Ahmad said that the FBR is seriously studying the World Bank (WB) recommendations on improving the anti-smuggling operations across the country. In this regard, the FBR may invite Tony Mart, an international consultant on customs matters from New Zealand, to interact with the local consultants for devising an effective anti-smuggling strategy.
About the enforcement actions against the non-filers, he said that the field formations have shown good progress to enforce filing of returns due to the efforts of the FBR Enforcement Wing. In this regard, the FBR is systematically co-ordinating with the field formations to increase the number of new taxpayers and discover potential persons through enforcement actions.
Earlier, addressing the seminar, FBR Chairman said that the Harassment of Women at Work Place ACT-2010' is a simple law which could be easily implemented for the protection of the women at workplaces. 99 percent cases of sexual harassment remained unreported even in countries like USA.
Referring to India, he said that one thing which is striking in Indian culture is that nobody stares at women while they are waiting at bus stops or riding a vehicle. This kind of attitude certainly gives an edge to Indian women over ours. The similar kind of women empowerment could be seen in China.
Addressing the seminar, Maliha Hussain, Program Director AASHA said that the law could only be effectively implemented if right people are included in the inquiry committee. There are informal and formal procedures of filing of complaints by the women under the said law, she said adding that a verbal complaint may be made to the supervisor or one of the inquiry committee members, who may informally take action to resolve the issue. Under the formal inquiry procedure, the inquiry committee after the receipt of a written complaint, shall after acknowledgement, communicate to the accused in writing within three days with allegation statement.
The accused shall respond in writing within seven days and ex-party decision will be made by the committee if the accused fails to submit written defence. Within 30 days Inquiry Committee shall complete the inquiry process and submit its recommendations to the competent authority. Within 7 days of the receipt of recommendations, the Competent Authority shall implement the decision.
When asked whether men are also covered under the law, Maliha said that the Law Minister had insisted to specify the words of 'women' in the 'Harassment of Women at Work Place ACT-2010'. During question-answer session, Muhammad Irshad, Commissioner Enforcement Regional Tax Office (RTO) Islamabad submitted some viable suggestions regarding smooth implementation of the law. He pointed out that the term sexual harassment should not be overstressed as there are also cases relating to general harassment. FBR Member Domestic Operations (North), Khalid Aziz Banth and FBR Member Enforcement and Accounting, Muhammad Fayaz Khan also attended the seminar.
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