FBR chief calls for data integration

ISLAMABAD: Federal Boar of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Mohammed Jehanzeb Khan has called for aligning ways to broaden the tax net through data integration, big data and data sciences that can help identify tax evaders.

Addressing the inaugural session of the 1st Information and Communication Technology Workshop, he underscored the importance of sharing data and finding out what data was available, since various departments were using their own data sets for several purposes. The session was organised by the FBR in collaboration with the World Bank at a local hotel on Tuesday.

“The first step is to understand what data is available and then work on a plan for sharing this data amongst the stakeholders,” he said, adding there was also a need to understand what protocols would be required and challenged overcome in achieve the desired goals and objectives.

The objective of the workshop was to bring all public sector organisations on one platform to find out ways for assisting each other and benefitting from the available data sources to boost revenue generation and resource mobilisation.

The FBR chairman told the participants that FBR had been working on preparing the ICT Strategy Document to address the revenue board’s development needs for the next three years, and a prospective plan on the IT and communication side for the next 10 years.

“A systematic plan with a clear roadmap will help identify what skill sets are to be learnt and honed and what resources are required for the purpose,” he added.