Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin said on Monday that the government is not satisfied with tax reforms of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), as it failed to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio at the desirable level. Responding to a question on reforms in tax administration during a press conference, Tarin said that the reforms in FBR were started by the previous government and these reforms failed to deliver the desired results.
He admitted that we would introduce new reforms in FBR after realising that existing reforms were unable to achieve the desired objectives. FBR has only achieved 9.6 percent Tax to GDP ratio instead of 15 percent required under the reforms. The reform process would be improved to raise Tax to GDP ratio and broadening the tax-base. In this regard, the government would change the whole reform process in the tax administration to achieve the desired results.
The present tax system would be improved by bringing new reforms in the tax administration. The rethinking is being done to make reforms more result oriented as well as successful, he added. It is worth mentioning that the existing reforms in the tax administration have unable to increase Tax to GDP ratio.