Dar asks revenue board to increase direct taxes collection

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday emphasised the need for increasing dependence on direct taxes to achieve revenue collection target for the current fiscal year and broadening of tax base. 

“Facilitation of taxpayers should be given top priority to improve tax culture and enhance the confidence and trust of taxpayers,” Dar said.

He was presiding over Chief Commissioners’ conference at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to review revenue collection performance of July.  

FBR has collected Rs200 billion in July against a collection of Rs164 billion in the same month of the last financial year 2016-17, registering a 20 percent growth.  Government set the tax collection target at Rs4,013 billion for the current fiscal year of 2017/18.  

The FBR’s reconciled tax collection stood just at Rs3,360-3,362 billion for the last fiscal year of 2016-17.  

Finance minister commended the performance of FBR on achieving the revenue target of July. He hoped that the same trend would continue in the coming months and FBR would keep up this performance in the same spirit during the current fiscal year.

Dar appreciated the decision of assigning monthly, quarterly and annual targets beforehand. 

“This would help better planning by the field formations for achieving revenue targets and would also be the basis for reward and recognition for those who perform,” he said.

Minister Dar wished success to the new team and hoped this visible change and trend would continue in the coming months.