Provinces given additional Rs700 bn after record tax collection: Haroon

ISLAMABAD: Special Adviser to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan has said that as a result of collection of over Rs3,112 billion taxes, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has given an additional Rs700 billion to provincial governments’ education and health sectors. He expressed these views during an interview with ‘The News’ on Sunday.

While replying to the questions of critics, he said that due to the able leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s efforts besides meeting a very difficult target of Rs3,014 billion, the FBR had collected billions of rupees through additional taxes and this was the result of the efforts made in the last 10 days of June.

He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had congratulated the FBR team on doing this difficult job. Haroon Akhtar Khan lashed out at the critics for quoting the wrong facts, figures and data regarding revenue collection.

While terming the claim of recovery of additional Rs50 billion through customs duty and Rs50 billion regulatory duty (total Rs100 billion) under one percent additional duty which was imposed in last December as false, he said the fact was that the FBR had collected Rs20 billion in the heads of customs and regulatory duties.

Haroon Akhtar Khan said that the tax income of FBR on petroleum products was much less as compared to 2013. He said that critics and opposition used to criticise positive development in the economic sector, which was made due to effective economic policies of the government in the last three years.