ISLAMABAD: A delegation of Her Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will visit Pakistan next week for further discussion on extending financial assistance to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in capacity building of different departments, Customs Today reliably learnt on Thursday.
HRMC is the UK’s tax authority and is responsible for making sure that the money is available to fund the UK’s public services and for helping families and individuals with targeted financial support. HMRC was established by Act of Parliament in 2005 as a new department replacing the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. Being tax authority, HMRC is responsible for Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, Insurance Premium Tax, Stamp, Land and Petroleum Revenue Taxes, Environmental taxes, climate change and aggregates levy and landfill tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), Excise Duties, National Insurance, Tax Credits, Child Benefit, enforcement of the National Minimum Wage and recovery of Student Loan repayments.
A well-placed source at FBR told this scribe here on Thursday that a security team of British High Commission (BHC) paid a visit to FBR Headquarters here to review security related affairs. “The team remained at FBR Headquarters for more than two hours and inspected every corner and surrounding so the building,” the source said.
The source further said that very objective of the HMRC was to hold discussions on the frame work for capacity building program of FBR departments. “HMRC and FBR have already identified departments including theTransfer Pricing, Audit Techniques, Communication: Internal & External and upgrading the IT Infrastructure for the capacity building programs,” the source added
Moreover the source said that Pakistan and UK had already signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard and British technical teams were visiting Pakistan to make further progress on the understandings. “British Department for International Development (DFID) has announced to provide millions of rupees as financial assistance for FBR for capacity building and HMRC with the provision of the said aid is making efforts to improve departments of FBR,” the source added
It is interesting to mention here that HMRC is a non-ministerial Department established by the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act (CRCA) 2005, replacing the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. CRCA vested responsibility for the administration of the tax system in Commissioners appointed by the Queen. The Commissioners are drawn from the Department’s top management. HMRC reports to Parliament through Treasury Minister who oversees HMRC’s spending. The Treasury lead on strategic tax policy and policy development. HMRC leads on policy maintenance and implementation. This arrangement for policy making is known as the ‘policy partnership’.
Moreover, the source said that HMRC was responsible for safeguarding the flow of money to the Exchequer through our collection, compliance and enforcement activities, make sure that money is available to fund the UK’s public services, administering Statutory Payments such as statutory sick pay and statutory maternity pay, helping families and individuals with targeted financial support through payment of tax credits administering the tax system in the most simple, and administering the Government Banking Service.
