ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and British Department for International Development (DFID) on Thursday agreed to further cement the bilateral cooperation for enhancing operational capacity of the FBR.
In this regard, a high level DFID delegation held a detailed meeting with FBR’s top leadership, including Chairman Nisar Mohammad Khan, Dr Muhammad Iqbal and others. After the meeting the delegation also visited a number of wings and departments at the FBR Headquarters.
DFID is a department of the British government that leads the UK’s work to end extreme poverty and need for aid by creating jobs, unlocking the potential of girls and women and helping to save lives when humanitarian emergencies hit.
A well-placed official source told Customs Today that in September 2014, Chairman FBR, Tariq Bajwa and Head of DFID, Pakistan, Richard Montgomery signed the MoU (memorandum of understanding) in the presence of Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar and then British High Commissioner, Phillip Barton.
Under the MoU, DIFD agreed to provide technical assistance to the FBR over the next three years to help build its capacity and improve tax collection to support economic integration, stability and growth.
In the light of said MoU, FBR constituted a unit on transfer pricing to identify relevant policy and operational issues faced by the tax authorities in this regard. The unit was headed by then Special Assistant to FBR Chairman, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal while Secretary Khalid Jamil, Additional Commissioner LTU Karachi, Girghari Mal Additional Commissioner LTU Karachi and Abdul Jawad Deputy Commissioner LTU Lahore were members of the unit.
The source said that both FBR and DIFD reviewed the status of implementation of previously agreed points by the FBR as well as deliberated on future plan of actions to assist FBR in its capacity building.
It is pertinent to note here that DIFD had been active in installing and improving IT related infrastructure of FBR in the past and most of collaboration between both the organizations had been in this field too.
