Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa and Member Customs Nisar Muhammad Khan are holding meetings with IMF in Dubai
Talks between FBR and IMF will continue until November 7
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to give new targets to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on improvement of performance in revenue collections and administration for continuation of IMF programme started last year.
Under the programme performance of four to five organisations was to be monitored. The organisations included FBR, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Finance Ministry (FM). The organisations which were getting subsidy from the government also fell in the category.
“In this regard very crucial meetings are underway in Dubai where Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa and Member Customs Nisar Muhammad Khan are briefing IMF about the achievements made by FBR,” a source told Customs Today.
“Normally, well-prepared delegations from ministries or departments attend sessions of talks of vital nature where financial assistance is involved, but FBR preferred only two member delegation, perhaps in a sense of overconfidence of concerned officials” the source also said.
He said that the IMF was happy with the performance of FBR on the issue of search of new taxpayers as well as volume of revenue collected from new taxpayers which was Rs 640 million. However, the FBR needed to do more in this regard because issuance of notices to new taxpayers alone was not going to produce desired results.
“Therefore, tax collection from new taxpayers is also must along with serving notices to them,” he added.
The source said that it would be very difficult for the FBR Member Customs to defend weak administration and enforcement as well as weak coordination between Customs and Inland Revenue departments at import stage.
“Almost four types of taxes, including customs duty, sales tax, income tax and withholding taxes are collected at ports from imports of goods,” he said, adding that administration was very weak at ports due to several reasons, including weak enforcement of Customs and Inland Revenue and no proper audit of their activities, resultantly both of the departments were working to benefit the taxpayer without taking care of interests of national kitty.
Moreover, the source said that there was also a weak coordination between both the departments at ports regarding collection of tax from the importers, therefore, quarters concerned were also deliberating on the policy to appoint two officers of both the departments at the same time to check under or over invoicing by the taxpayer.
“Secondly, there is also a proposal to get audit of both the organisations be carried out by auditors having proper knowledge, understanding and expertise in stand inland revenue” the source added.
Talks between FBR and IMF will continue until November 7.
