ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs Rana Afzal Khan has said the Federal Board of Revenue would achieve the tax collection target of Rs4 trillion for fiscal year 2017-18.
The FBR, during first half of the current financial year, has recorded provisional net revenue collection of over Rs1722 billion as against Rs1,466 billion collected during the same period of the previous fiscal year by recording an increase of around 17.5 per cent over the revenue collected during the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
Afzal said that the government has started issuing notices to 10,000 potential taxpayers to bring them into tax net. The Federal Board of Revenue has identified the potential taxpayers by reviewing record of different fields, including education, property and other services sectors, he added.
The minister said that the government is negotiating with Etisalat for recovering pending $800 million against the privatisation of 26 per cent shares of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). “The government is engaged to make a way forward and materialise maximum of the outstanding amount,” he added.
“Pakistan can increase its tax to GDP to 25 per cent from existing 12-13 per cent as per study of the World Bank,” he said and added that the government would launch a plan to broaden the tax net after winning next general elections.
