ISLAMABAD: On Thursday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to include wealthy people in the tax net and instructed officials to raise the number of Appellate Tribunals from 50 to 100 in order to accelerate the decision of outstanding tax issues.
In order to assess the progress of many tax initiatives that have been postponed for more than three years, the premier met again with senior FBR representatives. The prime minister convened many meetings to instruct the FBR to expedite the digitization of the tax system.
In addition, he oversaw the establishment of a dashboard to evaluate the effectiveness of these tribunals as well as an expansion in the number of Appellate Tribunals handling Customs matters.
A minister suggested at the discussion that an FBR deputy chairman be appointed to supervise the execution of the reforms. But before the suggestion goes to the prime minister for approval, a ministerial committee will review it, Dawn was informed by a source who was present at the meeting.
The Prime Minister was notified by the FBR authorities that 83,579 tax cases worth a total of Rs3.2 trillion were pending in different courts and tribunals. Officials claim that the administration has made some steps to settle unresolved tax issues. In the previous four months, 63 disputes worth a combined Rs44 billion were resolved by various courts. Shehbaz gave the FBR orders to select top attorneys for cases with large fees.
The well-known consultant McKinney, who has been in charge of the FBR’s digitization process for the past eight weeks, was also informed on his work. The prime minister ordered that the process be finished as quickly as possible.
The premier was told by tax officials that 4.9 million persons who are eligible to pay taxes had been discovered using advanced technology. Mr. Shehbaz has requested that the introduction of affluent people into the tax system while making sure the poor are not burdened further.
It was announced at the briefing that 150,000 shops have registered using the trader-friendly mobile app of the FBR since April 1. By October, all taxpayers will be subject to a single sales tax system according to the direction of Mr. Shehbaz.
The telecom industry successfully established a single sales tax return system for the convenience of taxpayers, as reported to the premier. The prime minister expressed remorse for the needless hold-up in starting a number of FBR reform-related initiatives.
Published in Bloom Pakistan, July 19th, 2024
