FBR task force told...: Customs system missing true value, quantity of trade data

ISLAMABAD: The Task Force on Digitization of the FBR has found that the true value and quantity of trade data with trading partners is not captured in the customs system of WEBOC/PSW. This startling disclosure was made during the second meeting of the task force on Wednesday.

As a follow-up to the first meeting held last week, the second meeting of the task force was held at the FBR headquarters, which was chaired by Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ali Pervez Malik and co-chaired by DG C41 Major General Ali Raza.

The meeting was also attended by Chairman FBR Rashid Mahmood Langrial, members and senior officers of the board along with Task Force members including Ghazi Akhtar from Lotte Akhtar Beverages Ltd, Javed Ashraf from Nadra and Fareed Zafar from LUMS while Asif Peer from Systems Ltd, Amir Malik, CEO PRAL, Waqasul Hasan and Tania Aidrus joined it virtually.

In his opening remarks, the minister said the task force was mandated to come up with practicable recommendations to transform the FBR into a modern and digitalized organization to achieve sustained growth in national revenues. He welcomed Dr Javed Ashraf from Nadra as the newest member of the task force.

The conveners of working groups, designated in the previous meeting, gave separate presentations along with their initial findings on their assigned area/ToRs. Asif Peer gave a presentation on restructuring of the PRAL, focusing on its governance structure, talent & capabilities, working model and technology. He also presented the analysis and initial findings to turn the PRAL into a high performing organization. Javed gave his group’s presentation on how to retrieve and integrate data from relevant organizations to develop a systematic and organized data profile to identify potential taxpayers. His presentation suggested short, medium and long-term recommendations to achieve the desired objectives.

This was followed by Ghazi Akhtar’s presentation on supply chain automation and the Track & Trace System (TTS) which, among others, laid emphasis on utilizing the already available data to bring wholesalers into the tax net as well as make the TTS more efficacious and operative to effectively collect due taxes from the relevant sectors.

Tania Aidrus gave a presentation on last ToRs, i.e. trade data sharing interface with trading partners wherein it was stated that the true value and quantity of trade data was not captured in the customs system of WEBOC/PSW. She also presented her group’s initial analysis.

The minister emphasized the need to harvest the already available data to identify potential taxpayers and bring them under the tax net for enhanced revenue collection and broadening the tax base. He said that improving visibility of data integration would bring transparency in the system. He directed inviting representatives from ministries of foreign affairs & commerce, SECP and State Bank of Pakistan in the next meeting.

The chairman FBR called for enabling the board to optimally utilize IT services of the PRAL by transforming the latter into an efficient entity. He stressed focusing on improving other areas along with digitizing the FBR. He said cleansing of retrieved data was also necessary to make it more actionable. He expressed optimism that the FBR was committed to enhancing revenue collection through implementation of data automation and other innovative solutions.

The presentations were followed by an extensive discussion. The forum decided that all the working groups would further firm up their initial findings and submit final recommendations pertaining to their relevant areas in the next meeting of the task force that would then be presented to the prime minister for implementation.