The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has strongly denied a news item captioned "duplicated collection figures irk FBR high-ups" and published in a section of the press insinuating that the collection figures reported to and by the FBR include duplication. In an official statement issued on Friday, the FBR clarified that it follows a meticulous process of reporting revenue collection and takes all possible care to preclude duplication or misreporting of figures. Furthermore, these figures are authenticated and reconciled not only with State Bank of Pakistan but also with AGPR. Therefore, the question of fudging of figures does not merit consideration.

The FBR also clarified that no inquiry on the issue of duplicate reporting is being conducted in the FBR. In order to strengthen internal controls and management, the FBR like all responsible organizations continuously endeavours to streamline its core business processes and reporting mechanisms and such efforts may not be scandalized by insinuations of any wrongdoing by the FBR or its field offices. It is reiterated that the revenue collection figures reported by the FBR are totally reliable and the provisional collection figures announced at the end of each month are invariably on the lower side and the final reconciled collection figures are always higher than the provisional figures.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018