FBR wants disposal of court, audit cases to meet tax revenue target

Stuck amounts estimated at Rs300bln

KARACHI: Newly-appointed chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Muhammad Irshad directed the tax officials to step up efforts for early disposal of court and audit cases in order to collect Rs1.8 trillion in the remaining part of the current fiscal year, sources said on Thursday.

The sources said the FBR chairman, at a recent meeting, hinted at the government unwillingness to revise down the tax revenue collection target of Rs3.621 trillion set for the current fiscal year of 2016/17.

FBR provisionally collected around Rs1.8 trillion during the July-January period of 2016/17. Sources said after assuming the charge of FBR chairman on regular basis, Irshad held a meeting with the chief commissioners and commissioners at the Large Taxpayers Unit, Karachi through a video conferencing on February 15 and outlined strategies to meet the revenue collection target.

The tax officials were informed that there was no intention of the government to relax the target. The chairman instructed the tax offices to speed up auditing and enforcement for recovery of outstanding amount.

FBR chief also called for early resolution of pending court cases involving around Rs300 billion. The officials were asked to request the courts for early disposal of the cases. An official said at least 2,000 cases are awaiting decision in the apex and high courts around the country. 

The courts had granted stay in a number of cases. In some cases, the stay is four-year long. The chairman also instructed the FBR law division to request the courts for early hearings in such cases.

The chairman announced revising the payment schedule for lawyers on the FBR panel to motivate them. Further, it was decided that tax officers would also appear in the court to assist lawyers.

Sources said the chairman also directed the tax offices to utilise workforce along with audit team to avert delay in auditing of the cases selected through computerised balloting. The tax authorities came up with 93,000 audit cases through a fresh exercise of random computer balloting.

In July 2015, a new section 214D was inserted into the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 that entails an automatic selection of taxpayers, who failed to file returns within time and disclose wealth, for auditing.

They said the completion of audit process is critical for revenue generation. In order to boost the morale of tax officers the chairman, who is also secretary revenue division, approved promotion of 52 officers of Inland Revenue Service from Grade – 17 to 18 on February 15, they added.

FBR Chairman Irshad also directed the regional tax offices (RTOs), which were assigned territorial jurisdictions, to speed up their efforts for identifying new taxpayers to broaden the tax base. 

RTOs were asked to conduct surveys of markets and shopping centres to spot on the individuals who earn taxable income but are not in the tax net. Irshad also held meeting with the customs officials through video conferencing to encourage them help the board in achieving revenue target for the current fiscal year.

— collects Rs123bln in 14 days

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs123 billion in tax revenues during the first 14 days of the ongoing month, a top official said.

The official told APP that the target for February was set at Rs250 million. “We are in a position to achieve the revenue target fixed for this month as almost half of the collections have been made till February 14,” said a spokesman of the FBR’s member strategic planning reforms and statistics.

He said the revenue collection of January fell around two percent short of the monthly target. In January, total tax collections amounted to Rs228 billion as against the target of Rs233 billion.

The total tax collection reached more than Rs1.85 trillion between July 2016 and February 15, 2017, depicting a growth of around seven percent over the last fiscal year. The spokesman is following a proper mechanism to resolve the tax-related disputes pending with the alternative dispute resolution committees (ADRCs).

He said the provisions in the tax laws provide an opportunity to the taxpayers to finalise and resolve their tax related disputes with ADRCs. The law permits the taxpayers to file their application with the ADRC; however, the FBR has a mandate to accept or reject the recommendations of ADRCs.

The FBR member said no tax amnesty scheme for any sector is under consideration for any sector. He said FBR and Auditor General for Pakistan Revenues have been jointly working to monitor and access complete data of sale and purchase of government vendors through monitoring and invoice verification system.