Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has asked Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to aggressively follow up on its agreement with traders to expand the tax base.
The advisor said this during a visit to the FBR on Wednesday, a day after the FBR revenue collection shortfall increased to over Rs 284 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year. The adviser asked FBR to redouble efforts for revenue collection in view of the current economic conditions.
He wanted the FBR to make efforts to enroll around 20,000 points of sales in the country, grant timely and full payment of tax refunds and draw up and pursue a futuristic work plan using modern communication tools to achieve organizational targets and goals in an ongoing manner.
He said that an efficient and robust communication with the public and stakeholders should be at the centre of every activity undertaken by FBR to harness public support for its efforts for broadening the tax base and promoting a tax-compliant culture in the country.
The advisor was given a detailed presentation by Chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi and his team on the results of various revenue collection initiatives and reforms, key challenges, public facilitation and confidence-building measures to boost the revenue growth and resource mobilization.
The FBR chairman, according to the Finance Ministry, informed the adviser that 16.3 percent revenue growth in FBR collection was noted during the first six months of the current fiscal year. As per provisional figures, the FBR collected Rs 2,083.2 billion during July-December 2019. The collection was higher by Rs 292.3 billion over the corresponding period of last year. The advisor was informed that more than 2.168 million tax returns were received by FBR by December 31, 2019 and at least 600,000 more people are likely to submit their returns in the time extended till end January 2020.
The advisor was also informed that domestic tax collection is showing 21 percent growth in domestic income tax, 34 percent growth in domestic sales tax and 25.6 percent increase in domestic federal excise duty, increasing the share of domestic revenue to Rs 1,172 billion in the overall tax collection so far as against Rs 934.5 billion for the same period a year before.
Zaidi maintained that FBR is laying more focus on the taxpayers' facilitation and automation of processes and now all steps of interaction of taxpayers with the department, including registration, issuance of certificates, returning filing, audit and monitoring, are fully automated. He added that FBR has disbursed tax refunds of Rs 100 billion to the taxpayers so far this year as against Rs 36 billion refunds given last year.
The adviser asked FBR to redouble their efforts for an optimal revenue collection in view of the current economic condition of the country as each dollar not earned by the revenue authority would have to be borrowed from somewhere else, affecting the future choices of the country.
He also advised the FBR management to follow an integrated media and communication plan using all modern tools of information and expertise of top-level service and content providers in the market to communicate with the public and share with them on a consistent basis the results of efforts on revenue collection and tax facilitation, particularly its agreement with the traders and the follow-up work afterwards, enrolment of 20,000 new POS (point of sales), progress on release of tax refunds, information about changes in Form H and the result of other reforms undertaken so far by the FBR. "These areas should be the focus of the FBR team in the new year," stressed the adviser.
Hafeez Shaikh said all his support is available to the FBR team for their honest work and he hoped that the revenue collection arm of the government would not disappoint the nation and would work harder to fulfill the expectations of the Prime Minister.
The FBR chairman stated he appointed five new complaint commissioners for the redressal of complaints and by March many of the pending cases would be resolved. He promised to provide results of their sector-wise collection.
Secretary Finance Naveed Kamran Baloch, Special Secretary Finance Omar Hamid Khan and Members of FBR were also present during the meeting.
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