Revenue body hopes to achieve tax-to-GDP ratio of 13-15pc in 5 years

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) hopes to achieve the tax-to-GDP ratio of 13-15 per cent during the next five years against the existing level of 8.0 per cent under the already initiated Tax Administration Reforms Programme (TARP), reveals the content of a letter written by the revenue body chairman to the finance secretary.

Despite Pakistanís exceedingly unfavorable macroeconomic situation, the revenue body is committed to meet the revenue collection target of Rs1,380 billion by achieving a growth of 19.3 per cent, as compared to the previous fiscal year.

FBR withdraws audit notices issued to 1,000 industrial units

KARACHI: Bowing to the pressure of the business community the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) withdrew its notifications demanding audit of more than 1,000 industrial units, a senior FBR official said on Saturday.

“The purpose of issuing the annulled notification about conducting audit of 1,076 industrial units was to unveil a paperless fraud of Rs2 billion worth of sales tax refund,” said Muhammad Zahid Khokhar, Director, Intelligence & Investigation, FBR while addressing KCCI on Saturday.

Govt to study inflationary impact of VAT: FBR chief

 ISLAMABAD: Government will conduct a study, worth Rs6.0 million, regarding the impact of Value-Added Tax (VAT) on inflation, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman said on Thursday.

“After the study we will have reliable data about its impact on inflation, revenue and further documentation of the economy,” FBR Chairman Sohail Ahmed told a news briefing convened to erase confusion on VAT.

Although the FBR chairman insisted that VAT would have no inflationary impact, one of his subordinates differed, saying that it would create a price-hike.

Revenue target of Rs1.6tr likely next year

ISLAMABAD: The federal government estimates next year’s revenue collection at Rs1.650 trillion and federal development programme at a reduced size of Rs300 billion amid an evasive stance of the International Monetary Fund about remaining instalments of the $11.3 billion package owing to a couple of policy slippages.
Informed sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the ministry of finance was comfortable with the third quarter performance on the fiscal deficit and revenue fronts despite certain slippages in tax targets. Provisional estimates suggest the government has remained within 1.6 per cent deficit target set for the third quarter as revenue collection stood at Rs116 billion last month. This indicates that even though the budgetary target of Rs1.380 trillion may not be achieved, the overall tax collection would reach Rs1.350 trillion by the end of the year against IMF’s original target of Rs1.343 trillion.

Only 1.6pc Pakistanis registered taxpayers

Tuesday, April 06, 2010
KARACHI: Only 2.75 million Pakistanis, or 1.6 percent of the country’s estimated 160 million people, are registered tax-payers and posses the National Tax Numbers (NTN), FBR report said.

FBR collects Rs178.306bn withholding tax

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has collected Rs178.306 billion by deducting withholding tax on various accounts during the first eight months (July-Feb) of 2009-10, including Rs8.3 billion on cash withdrawals from banks on transaction exceeding Rs25,000.

On prize bonds, the FBR collected Rs1.310 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year.

15% value added tax proposed: FBR

KARACHI: Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Sohail Ahmed has said that 15 percent value added tax has been proposed.

Talking to Geo News, he said the draft proposal in this regards has been presented to the Parliament which, after approval, will be put into effect from July 1, 2010.

FBR collects over Rs577bn revenues in first 6 months

Thursday, January 07, 2010
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has collected revenues amounting to Rs577.337 billion during first-half of the current financial year, as against Rs553.833 billion collected during the same period of last year, showing an increase of 4.2 per cent.

The revenue collections in July-December included Rs208.594 billion as direct taxes and Rs368.743 billion as indirect taxes, Asrar Raouf, Spokesman for the FBR and Member Direct Tax policy, told APP on Wednesday.

Shortfall of Rs30bn in revenue feared

ISLAMABAD: The government is likely to face a revenue shortfall of Rs25 to Rs30 billion during the current fiscal year, mainly due to the additional cost of military operation in South Waziristan.
 
The government is likely to take fiscal measures in January to meet the shortfall, said Federal Board of Revenue chairman Suhail Ahmed on Wednesday.

The new fiscal measures would not affect the common man, the FBR chairman said while talking to newsmen.
The cost of military operation in South Waziristan was not part of the federal budget for 2009-10 announced in June this year, he said.