ISLAMABAD: In the wake of rumours of missing the revenue collection target, the Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Tariq Mehmood Pasha is going to pat his team in Karachi to speed up revenue collection. In this regard, he is going to pay a one day visit to Karachi along with his core team members including Member Operations, Special Assistant to Chairman and others today (Friday).
In the second week of current month, the caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar in her maiden press conference hinted government would not meet the revenue collection target set for the ongoing fiscal year 2017-18, saying that revenue target should be realistic not the optimistic.
A source at FBR told Customs Today that chairman FBR had been tasked to make all out efforts to meet the given revenue target. Therefore, he is going to visit Karachi; the source of almost 60 to 70% revenue collection. Besides the officers, Pasha will hold meetings with representative of the chamber of the commerce and industry, major contributors of the revenue to discuss the issues related to the advance tax and others.
The source said that FBR had huge infrastructure including two Large Taxpayers’ Units; one corporate Regional Taxpayers’ Unit and during his interactions with the in-charge of the on the ground operations, he would pat them to ensure timely deposit of tax to the national kitty.
“Furthermore, in his interactions with the business community, Pasha is going to sensitize them about the possible consequences of missing the revenue target along with implications for the country on international economic fronts because the international monetary institutions may likely change their perception as well as rating about economic growth of Pakistan” the source added.
Moreover, the source said that Pasha had also issued directive to seven directorates of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue to speed up recovery to make up possible shortfall of revenue. The government has assigned him bind withholding agents to deposit tax within the current month of June otherwise deposit will be shown in next fiscal year.
