ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar launched the Taxpayers’ Directory 2017 for Parliamentarians and all taxpayers at the FBR Headquarters. Chairman FBR Jehanzeb Khan and Member FBR IT Mehmood Aslam Lillah accompanied the State Minister.
Addressing the participants on the occasion, Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar said that the object of launching the Tax Directory is to introduce financial transparency and sharing information with the public on how much the public representatives, who had been availing the resources of the country on behalf of the people, had been paying individually as taxes to the exchequer.
The minister also emphasized the importance of technological interventions in ascertaining the tax liabilities of the individuals thereby minimizing the element of human intervention and complaints against coercion. He said that there are challenges like increase in trade deficit and a large budget deficit that accumulated over the years but we are taking measures to overcome it. He said that FBR had taken initiatives like ascertaining liabilities of the High Net worth Individuals and getting details of the offshore assets of the Pakistanis and that will surely not only help in achieving our tax targets but increase our revenues.
Minister of State Hammad Azhar said that it will be our policy from now onwards to collect the taxes from wealthy and mighty first and treat everyone according to the law so that the belief in our system is restored in the hearts of the people. He said that it is the vision of our government to make this country prosperous by providing our business community with a competitive business environment and for this purpose we have offered a trade facilitation package which is in the parliament for approval. We hope that the future is bright for our country and FBR will play its rightful role in this drive towards prosperity.
FBR Chairman Jehanzaib Khan said that it has been the fifth consecutive year that the Tax Directory for the Parliamentarians and the taxpayers is published by FBR. The Chairman while addressing the gathering of the Income Tax officers and members of the media team said that increasing the number of taxpayers and improving the Tax to GDP ratio had been the top most priority of the current government as already affirmed by the Prime Minister and the Minister of State. There had been a 34% increase in the number of tax filers because of the steps taken by FBR, said the chairman.
He further said that increase in investment, facilitation and fair treatment of the taxpayers are the guiding principles of the incumbent government’s tax policy.
