FBR clarifies news item

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) stated on Thursday that on the front page of the daily The News dated 12th December, 2019, incorrect figures were reported under the heading ‘Pakistan conveys the China customs authorities its reservations about Trade Data Exchange’, about under-invoicing/over-invoicing and the resultant revenue loss. “The FBR wants to make it clear that it has not provided these figures. It is important to highlight here that because of close cooperation between Pakistan Customs and China Customs, this difference is substantially reduced. In the meeting, both sides undertook to ensure closer/enhanced cooperation. There is strong hope that, in coming days, the quantum of under-invoicing and over-invoicing would be minimal,” said the FBR.

Mehtab Haider adds: It was not mentioned that the FBR provided figure of under-invoicing/over-invoicing to the tune of $4 to $6 billion on per annum basis. First of all, if these figures are incorrect then the FBR should come up public and share the correct ones. These are just rough estimates that were even quoted at different forums and were assessed few years back. So it is feared that the volume of under-invoicing/over-invoicing in totality might have gone on much higher side than quoted in our published story. So this correspondent stands by each and every word written in the story.