ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been preparing a final presentation for the upcoming meeting of the Tax Reforms Commission (TRC).
Four members of the FBR are going to share presentation prepared by the respective departments as the Board-in-Council meeting is likely to be held on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
In September, government had announced the constitution of a Tax Reforms Commission to review and rationalise direct and indirect taxes, customs tariffs, autonomy and administration structure of the FBR, creation of a border force to deal with illegal movement of person and goods across the international borders and other related issues.
At the time of announcement of constitution of TRC, the FBR chairman was given the status of the secretary of the commission, however, later Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was nominated as the chairman of the commission. The Tax Reforms Commission was given 120 days for the preparation of recommendations.
Sources said that four members, including the member administration, the member operations, the member tax policy and the member customs would brief the Board-in-Council about presentations prepared by their respective departments for the upcoming TRC meeting.
“The presentations pertaining to the administrative and financial aspects, performance of field officers, inland filed operations as well as policy introduction of administration, customs, operations and policy departments of the FBR,” source added.
Sources said that main objective of in house discussions at Board-in-Council level was to develop a consensus on a unified stance to be taken before the Tax Reforms Commission which was quite wrong because all four members were supposed to brief the Tax Reforms Commission about revolutionary changes introduced by them in their departments in last five years..
“Instead of confining their presentation to the tax tariffs, the FBR must apprise the TRC about the actual situation, operation problems, policy and other issues to prepare proper and practicable recommendations for tax reforms,” the source observed, adding that if deliberations and presentations of these members would remain confined to tax tariffs, then recommendations prepared by the TRC would not bring about any positive change in the tax system.
“Therefore, instead of share presentations with each other at Board-in-Council meeting, the FBR members must highlight their genuine problems with the TRC,” the source added.
It is pertinent to note here that at maiden meeting of the TRC was held on October 18 in which FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa gave a presentation to the finance minister and members of the commission on the current state of tax collection and the issues being faced by the FBR in this regard. He also dilated in detail on the administrative and policy reforms introduced by the FBR.
