The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will shortly notify Tax Reform Implementation Committee to ensure smooth implementation of recommendations of the Tax Reform Commission (TRC). It is learnt that the committee would be headed by Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue and members would comprise Chairman TRC Masoud Naqvi and renowned tax expert and Member TRC Ashfaq Tola. Besides, the FBR Senior officials and members would also be part of the committee.
The committee would ensure implementation of the short-term and long term viable recommendations of the TRC. It is a major decision to timely implement tax reforms in Pakistan to simplify tax procedures, expand the tax base, increase revenue collection, facilitate taxpayers and to curb corruption and liaison with NAB for implementation of recommendation against corruption. The committee would be shortly notified by the FBR following approval of the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
It is worth mentioning that the FBR and the TRC have in principle agreed on a number of medium and long term recommendations including valuation of property and advance ruling for resident persons. Sources said that the Tax Reform Committee was constituted through notification dated 25 September, 2014. The said Committee has meanwhile furnished an interim report of recommendations. The summary of the said recommendations was received from Finance Minister Office and the FBR sent comments. A follow-up meeting was held on 31st October, 2015 and the Finance Minister presided over the meeting. S.A to Prime Minister on Revenue, Chairman FBR, Senior officers of FBR and some members of TRC attended the meeting.
Chairman FBR informed the TRC meeting that lot of in-house deliberations were made in FBR and based upon these discussions the comments in annotated manner on TRC proposals were submitted to the Finance Division. After reviewing the TRC proposal and FBR comments thereupon it was noted that there was no major disagreement between TRC and FBR except to assign priority to each proposal. The minister stated that a lot of hard work has been done by TRC and emphasised on the need to implement recommendations which are agreed and prioritised in order of (i) Short Term (immediate to 6 months) (ii) Medium Term (6 months to two years) (iii) Long Term (over two years). Thereafter a detailed meeting between Chairman and members of TRC and FBR team was held in FBR house.