ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) expects over one million new taxpayers in the tax net in next six months. With the inclusion of new taxpayers, the total number of taxpayers as well as the figures of revenue collection will also increase significantly. This will also enable FBR to meet the revenue collection target likely to be set for the fiscal year 2018-19 through Finance Bill.
An official source at FBR rejected the criticism that revenue collection would face Rs100 to 120 billion loss due the drastic reduction in tax rate because over half of a million taxpayers have been excluded from the tax net by increasing the minimum income from Rs 4 lac to Rs 12 lac.
The source told that computerized national identity cards (CNICs) had been declared as National Tax Number (NTN) and CNICs had been issued to over 180 million people in the country; therefore, FBR expects inclusion of at least one million new taxpayers in the tax net out of 180 million people.
Moreover, the source told that the figure one million was the minimum limit because the number of new taxpayers could go higher up to two million too. The increase in the number of taxpayers will become a running phenomenon because every year new taxpayers will automatically be added to the tax net.
To a question about the possible consultative role of FBR in the formation and development of recently announced tax amnesty scheme, the source told that FBR extended full cooperation in the formation of tax amnesty scheme. In this regard, positive outcomes of tax amnesty schemes introduced by some other countries were also brought under consideration.
Therefore, the source said that FBR had high hopes for the positive and productive outcomes of the tax amnesty scheme both regarding the broadening of tax net as well as increasing the revenue collection.
However, the source expressed a little bit dismay over the working capacity of FBR in handling the taxpayers in such a big number saying that FBR had meek and bleak presence at tehsil and town level therefore it would be quite difficult to meet the requirements of the increasing number of taxpayers.
