ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member FATE Nausheen Amjad Javaid has said that filing of income tax returns is not only a national duty but it also entails many benefits and advantages in terms of low tax rates on various transactions for the filers.
A team of Facilitation and Taxpayer Education (FATE) Wing of the FBR visited the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Islamabad for greater academic focus and research on taxation and inculcation of tax education as a key component of university curricula.
The team, led by Nausheen Javaid Amjad, met the management of NUST School of Social Sciences and Humanities and had a detailed, interactive sessions with a large gathering of faculty and students of various departments. The need and importance of tax education and tax literacy was discussed to enable the students to act as the agents of change for promoting a tax compliant society.
She briefed the students on various initiatives taken by FBR in recent months such as the modernization of FBR’s helpline, installation of a state-of-the-art Customer Relationship Management System (CRMS), publication of facilitation brochures and material and various tax awareness and outreach program to bridge the gap between the tax authority and the taxpayers as well as to create the essential awareness and understanding of taxes and filing of income tax returns.
“People need to know that filing of income tax returns is not only a national and civic duty, it also entails many benefits and advantages in terms of low tax rates on various transactions for the filers,” she said. The FBR Member FATE also dilated upon various outreach sessions and training workshops conducted by FBR on e-filing and other aspects of taxation for the employees of several large public and private sector organizations in recent months, and offered to hold similar training sessions and workshops for the outgoing students of NUST.
“Our efforts have already resulted in significant improvement in the number of return filers this year and we hope our academic institutions can further create tax literacy to increase tax compliance and help the students learn the importance of something they confront well before they receive their first salaries and incomes after joining the business world as entrepreneurs and high-end professionals,” she added.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Ashfaque Hassan Khan, Principal and Dean of the NUST School of Social Science and Humanities, and Prof Dr. Athar Maqsood Ahmad, Head of Economics Department at NUST welcomed the FBR’s initiative of doing away with the traditional, one-way communication of the past and starting a more engaging, interactive and productive partnership with the taxpayers and particularly students who were the future’s opinion makers and business leaders, leading the way in the use and adoption of new innovative technologies to drive socio-economic changes in the society.
