LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue could achieve more than the set target of revenue by increasing the work force and competency of the present staff, an official told Customs Today.
He said the FBR was a key institution of the state that generated revenue to run the business of state. He said there were many causes like floods and cuts in oil prices that barred the department from achieving its target in the first half of the fiscal year 2014-15.
He also said the department was also facing a shortage of staff that was a major hurdle for achieving the revenue target. He said the FBR could not get access to potential taxpayers due to a shortage of staff. The department could not recover tax from registered taxpayers as lower returns were filed than the previous year, he added.
He said that delay in promotions of the staff also created problems for the department. He said that three years ago a promotional test was held to fill the vacant posts of inspectors and candidates were selected, but until today the department has not sent orders regarding the postings. He informed that there was a shortage of inspectors to execute the FBR policy in fields.
“There is a potential in our country to generate much revenue and the FBR needs to bring the unregistered and defaulters on table,” he said. The official also suggested that the department should increase the work force along with growing the competency of present staff.
The FBR had set a revenue collection target of Rs 1,230 billion for the first half of the current fiscal year; however, it could only collect Rs 1,171 billion. The shortfall was faced in income tax, sales tax and customs duty.
According to Customs Today, “Only 15,000 out of over 64,000 registered companies filed income tax returns by the last date of December 31, 2014. The figure was also lower than the previous year when 24,000 companies filed tax returns.”
