ISLAMABAD: The government is fully committed to granting operational and financial autonomy to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to rule out the possibility of political interference.
This was stated by Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin, while addressing senior officers at the FBR Headquarters here.
He appreciated last year's commendable performance of the FBR regarding collection of revenue target despite, challenges posed by the Covid-19.
He also stated that the FBR was on track for achievement of this year's target of Rs5,829 billion as the FBR had already surpassed the target with a margin of Rs160 billion in the first two months.
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The operational and financial autonomy to the FBR would make tax machinery as an efficient, merit-based, service-oriented, and public-friendly organisation.
"The broadening of tax base is one of the top priorities of my team for the current year and we have constituted committees comprising private sector experts, the NADRA, and the FBR officers who are working tirelessly." While elaborating the function of these committees, he added that these committees are also working on the assessment of resource constraints of the FBR, especially the finances and the logistics, and they would be recommending ways and means to overcome these constraints.
"The other flagship initiative is Point of Sales Integration, which aims at recoding the real-time transactions at retail level and has huge potential to increase the revenue of the State," he continued.
The finance minister also briefed about the progress on Track and Trace project, which would be rolled out from November as the stay granted by one of the High Court had been vacated and he had also approved funds of Rs432 million for the project.
Highlighting the importance of digitisation of the FBR, the finance minister stated that automation in tax system would bring transparency and reduce the discretionary powers, which had always been a long-term demand of the business community.
He expressed his commitment to provide required funds for digitisation and added that technical supplementary grant of Rs3.8 billion had already been approved in the current week to upgrade the IT systems and their security.
Commenting about Pakistan Single Window (PSW) project, he stated that under the PSW, more than 70 different departments would converge on one platform for the facilitation of the business community, which would promote trade in the country.
He urged the FBR to follow an ambitions target of taking the tax-to-GDP ratio to 20 percent in the next six-eight years.
The finance minister also appreciated the FBR for making significant headway towards harmonisation of sales tax between the Federation and the Federating units under the umbrella of the National Tax Council (NTC).
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He appreciated the Integrated Transit Trade Management System (ITTMS) and called it a landmark project, which would connect the whole region from Central Asia to South Asia after its completion.
He further stated that anti-smuggling and counter-smuggling initiatives are one of the top-most priority areas and the prime minister is very concerned about it.
He appreciated the FBR's efforts to curb smuggling despite, resource constraints.
He paid tributes to the sacrifices by customs officials who laid down their lives in the line of duty.
While concluding his address, he hoped that team FBR would spare no effort or avenue to not only achieve the assigned revenue target of 5.8 trillion but also exceed the same by wide margins.
Earlier, Chairman FBR Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed welcomed Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue in the FBR.
He stated that the interactive session with the finance minister would provide an opportunity to the senior leadership of the FBR to understand his vision and thus, would help take his vision forward.
The chairman FBR in his address elaborated that the government's priority was to create an enabling environment for the trade and businesses, especially for the SMEs through simplifications of laws and procedures, and to stimulate economic activity.
"The FBR being cognizant of this vision, has taken a number of concrete measures to translate it into reality," he added.
The chairman FBR, while acknowledging the result-oriented vision of the finance minister stated that under his dynamic leadership, much-needed economic stability had been achieved, which was rather elusive before.
"Now the country is on the path to economic growth," he added.
He hoped that growth trajectory would bring about prosperity, resulting in employment and economic empowerment of the people.
While concluding his speech, the chairman FBR assured the finance minister that team FBR was fully geared towards achievement of target for this year as well.
"We are on track and would not leave any stone unturned for surpassing the historic milestone of Rs5.8 trillion," he concluded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021