Addressing the Chief Commissioners' Conference at the FBR House here on Tuesday, he said that he will sit at FBR House and run the government affairs from the FBR House in case the assigned target has not been achieved. He further clarified that the tax rates will not be increased but the base will be expanded to improve tax-to-GDP ratio," he added.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who came from Washington on Tuesday directly dashed to the FBR Headquarters to inform the tax collectors that they would have to gear up efforts to achieve the target of Rs 199 billion envisaged for on-going month (April 2014).
Sources referred to Finance Minister directing the FBR's Regional Commissioners' Conference that all macro-economic targets are indicating positive side of our national economy but the FBR's tax collection needs to improve so all-out efforts are required to achieve the revised target for 2013-14. He said the tax net would be broadened in the next budget. There will be no increase in tax rates but certain number of exemptions will be abolished to broaden the base, he added.
Dar lauded the FBR's performance achieving 17 percent growth by netting Rs 1,573 billion in first nine months of the current fiscal year as compared to the same period of last fiscal year, saying that the FBR will have to achieve Rs 772 billion during the last quarter (April-June) period to reach the desired tax collection target of Rs 2,345 billion.
The FBR's tax collection target was revised downward from Rs 2475 billion to Rs 2345 billion in view of tax collectors inability to produce the desired results. Dar said the FBR has the capacity to achieve the assigned revenue collection target for current fiscal year.
Appreciating the performance of the FBR in revenue collection, the Finance Minister said Rs 214 billion were collected in the month of March 2014. From now onwards the FBR will have to collect Rs 257 billion per month to achieve the revenue collection target.
Dar said achieving the revenue target is imperative to develop programs for future of the country. He said the government has doubled expenditures on the welfare of poor. The expenditures on the poor segments have been enhanced from Rs 40 billion to Rs 75 billion.
He also asked the taxpayers to pay their due share of taxes, considering it a national duty so that public welfare and infrastructure projects can be undertaken for the socio-economic prosperity. Dar said the economic indicators are showing positive trends and the same have been endorsed by the international financial institutions. GDP has witnessed growth while the inflation level has come down. The appreciation of Pakistani rupee has reduced our debt burden. He added that the country's entry into the international bond market after seven years was a success story and our bond was oversubscribed many times.