Chairman Federal Board of Director gave a briefing on one year's performance to the Prime Minister and stated that there was a growth of 14.65 percent in total revenue collection during the last two months of the current fiscal year. The FBR has collected Rs 579.4 billion during this period against Rs 505.8 billion in July-August, 2018-19. The target fixed for the FBR during first two months of the current fiscal year was Rs 643.6 billion.
In absolute terms, the growth of Rs 73.6 billion was recorded while in percentage terms it was 14.65 percent.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has informed the PM that the data collection is the prime focus of the ongoing exercise of verification of import documents of outlets selling imported items across the country to check smuggling. The FBR will ensure on-spot recording during their visits to markets and meetings with shopkeepers to restore the confidence of traders.
While briefing on the measures taken during the last one year to restore confidence of tax body, the Prime Minister was told that the number of filers has increased from 1.5 million in Tax Year 2017 to 2.5 million in Tax Year 2018.
The chairman FBR and other senior officials stated that registration, issuance of tax certificates and filing of tax returns are being automated. Likewise, all the phases of audit are being made automated to bring the requirement of contacting officials of FBR to an end.
The web portal has been made operational with the help of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) so that one could have access to all the financial information provided by various departments to the FBR at one site. The FBR has also made the online system effective so that all the complaints with regard to officials be timely addressed.
The Prime Minister was also informed that pending refund of Rs 16 billion has been paid to exporters and the remaining Rs 17 billion would be paid at the end of current month to facilitate the exporters in terms of their liquidity issues while tax registration scheme is being further simplified for retailers and shopkeepers. Likewise, to facilitate the tax payers a website namely 'Tax Asan' is being introduced.
On the trade side, the Premier was informed that through an export facilitatation scheme, exports are being made easy and scanners have been set up at various customs stations and 24/7 custom facility has been provided at Torkham border while customs facility at Kartarpur Corridor would be started soon.
About the measures taken to stop mobile phone smuggling, the FBR is providing online phone registration system. The Prime Minister was informed that currency registration system has been made operational at all major airports to facilitate passengers in declaring currency.