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.

Most of top corporate bodies did not file tax returns

ISLAMABAD: With the exception of five sectors, less than half of the top corporate entities in the country have filed income tax returns during the first half of the current financial year.
Only 24 per cent of those which have filed returns have declared income and the remaining 76 per cent have made no contribution to the federal revenue, says the quarterly report of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

A majority of companies listed among the 20 major corporate entities in different sectors have either declared loss or no income.

IMF to approve Pakistan tranche in April: official

KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to meet by mid-April to approve the fifth tranche of a loan to Pakistan and a delay was purely for “bureaucratic” reasons, a government official said on Monday.


Pakistan turned to the IMF for an emergency loan package of $7.6 billion in November 2008 to help avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves.