FBR chairman rules out any new tax amnesty

KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Asim Ahmed on Saturday ruled out any tax amnesty schemes on account of International Monetary Fund (IMF) restrictions.

Ahmed also rejected the reports about an upcoming mini-budget in the days ahead, and announced that a tax

reforms commission was being revived under the directions of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

The chairman was speaking to the business community in successive meetings held at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).

Achieving the tax collection target in November would be a difficult task for the FBR because the reduction in imports had dried up this avenue, the chairman said.

Responding to the reservations of the business community, he assured of his support, and said that if the industry would be closed down, it would also adversely impact Pakistan’s tax collection target.

Ahmed reminded the businesspersons that the issues of taxation would be resolved through the Alternate Dispute Resolution Committee (ADRC) mechanism and the nominations in ADRC would be done by taking on board the business community.

“Tax reforms commission is also being revived and it will have representation from the business community and other stakeholders,” he added.

Speaking of simplification of tax return filing, the FBR chairman said that a one page tax return would be issued soon for traders, while the tax audit would now be done in four years instead of every year.

He urged the business community to file tax returns within the deadline. “Sanctity of the deadline for filing the returns should be upheld as country is asked about the tax returns when IMF goes for the review of its programme for Pakistan,” Ahmed reminded.

Pakistan held huge potential for tax collection if the untapped sectors were also brought into the tax net, he said.

Tier-2 retailers and wholesalers have the potential to contribute Rs250 billion in the national exchequer, but when fixed tax regime was imposed, only Rs6 billion was generated, which reflected the huge gap between the collection and potential of taxation.

“FBR is also improving the refund system and efforts are underway so income tax refunds are also issued speedily,” he added.

About the multiple tax notices issued for the industry, he said that notices issued could not be withdrawn; however, in future it would be taken care of.

He told the businessmen that the World Bank asked for harmonisation of property values of center and provinces and asked for declaring the properties as information has started coming from the provinces.

He pointed out that FBR’s valuation of property was higher than provincial valuation, however these have been harmonised to a large extent.

Documentation of the economy was needed to raise Pakistan’s national tax collection, the FBR chairman said, adding that a conference of FBR commissioners and collectors, they were asked to work on it without committing any injustices.