Transformation of FBR on the cards: Zaidi

• Zaidi says that the whole organisation including all levels of staff, will be taken into consideration for the implementation of restructuring.
• The growth in revenue collection of the FBR is unlikely to go beyond 26 percent.

Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Syed Shabbar Zaidi on Tuesday said that restructuring would take place in the tax collecting organisation, only after taking all stakeholders on board.

“I thank all the CCIR of IRS [Inland Revenue Service] for very productive meeting," said Zaidi in a tweet.

"Restructuring/transformation of FBR will be undertaken after taking into account feedback of all the stakeholders. Whole organisation including all levels of staff, will be taken into consideration," he added.

I thank all the CCIR of IRS for very productive meeting. Rerestructuring/transformation of FBR will be undertaken after taking into account feedback of all the stakeholders. Whole organisation including all levels of staff, will be taken into consideration.

— Syed Shabbar Zaidi (@ShabarZaidi) 5 November 2019

Earlier, it was learnt that the growth in revenue collection of the FBR is unlikely to go beyond 26 percent given the current trend against 44 percent required to achieve Rs 5.5 trillion tax target for the current fiscal year.

Sources said that the current trend suggests that by the end of fiscal year there would be a shortfall of over Rs 600 billion in FBR revenue collection as total tax collection.

There was a shortfall of Rs 164 billion in FBR revenue collection during July-October (2019-20) as total collection stood at Rs 1,283 billion against the target of Rs 1,447 billion for the first four months of the current fiscal year.

Senior officials of the FBR maintain that the shortfall in revenue collection was primarily because of contraction in imports as more than 31 percent revenue is collected at import stage in the form of customs duty, withholding tax, general sales tax. They point out that there was a contraction of $3 billion in import bill during the first quarter of the current fiscal year (around Rs 506 billion), whose impact on total FBR revenue collection during the first quarter was recorded at Rs 125 billion.