ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has selects 93,277 tax cases for audit during the current fiscal year through computerized ballots.
On the occasion, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the government would not tolerate tax evaders in any case and the time to come would be very difficult for them. He, however, assured those taxpayers who were paying their taxes honestly would be further facilitated.
Addressing a ceremony to conduct the computerized balloting for audit for the tax year 2015 (income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty), the finance minister said those selected for audit should need not worry if they were honest tax payers.
He said due to hard efforts of the government, Pakistan succeeded in becoming a signatory of the multilateral convention of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Pakistan could now have access to information about the tax evaders anywhere in the world. “That is why I am saying that tax evaders cannot run anywhere and ultimately they must have to pay their taxes honestly otherwise they would have to face legal process,” Dar added.
He also directed the FBR officials not to harass the taxpayers and they should not be dealt with heavy handedness, however he asked the FBR to ensure tax compliance. The finance minister said that due to structural reforms and stringent fiscal discipline, the government succeeded in boosting the revenue collection by 60 percent in three years whereas in 2012-13, the revenue collection increase was 3.38 percent. “Today Pakistan’s socio economic condition is far better than that it was in 2013 when the country was on the verge of default,” he remarked.
He, however, said that there was a lot to be done in order to bring the country among top 18 countries by 2030s. “Now the whole focus of the government is on exports growth, agriculture and services led economic growth as there is lot of room in these sectors to develop”, he added.
Earlier, speaking at the occasion, Minister of State for Revenue, Haroon Akhtar Khan said that without audit, self-assessment schemes could not be successful. He said the balloting was totally computerized and there was no chance of any mismanagement. FBR Chairman Nisar Mohammad Khan said in order to promote tax culture and compliance many audit policies were launched in the past but the latest policy, that was approved a few days ago, had been carefully drafted keeping in mind the wisdom and experience derived from the past policies. He said the Audit policy, 2016 had proposed a paradigm shift from random ballot to parametric selection and risk based approach. “This approach would minimize chances of selection of compliant tax payers resulting in increased confidence in the system”, he said, adding this new trend in taxpayers’ audit
would not only promote compliance with the existing tax laws but would also generate increased revenues through better declaration for better public spending by the government.
