PMLN leaders ask FBR to devise five-year tax collection roadmap

ISLAMABAD: The upcoming ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), leadership has asked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to devise a roadmap to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio over the next five years.

The FBR high-ups briefed the PMLN leadership, including Senator Mussadiq Malik and Ahad Cheema. The PMLN leadership asked the FBR for devising a roadmap for jacking up tax-to-GDP ratio up to at least 13.5 percent over the next five years period.

“The FBR has been assigned to come up with digitisation of economy and utilising information technology for bringing potential sectors into tax net,” top official sources confirmed to The News here on Monday.

The official said that the digital economy would be the focused of the upcoming government, so the FBR was asked to come up with documentation of the economy. The integration of FBR, Nadra, SBP and Ministry of IT for utilising the e-commerce and digitisation as tool for broadening of tax base.

The PMLN leaders were interested to get input from the FBR for increasing tax-to-GDP ratio under a well-thought-out strategy as the tax-to-GDP ratio was currently standing in the range 8.5 percent on annual basis.

The next government would aim at doubling the revenue collection over five years period which was currently envisaged to fetch Rs9,415 billion till end of June 30, 2024. The government would also decrease the maximum individual tax rate from 30 percent to 15 percent, increase the minimum tax threshold from Rs0.4 million to Rs1.2 million per year, enable payment of taxes online, through the cell phone, ATM and banks, strengthen the alternate dispute resolution mechanism by making the decision binding on both parties, and establish Queue Management System for elimination of the discretionary system for sales tax refunds.