FBR chairman meets WB country director

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank’s Country Director for Pakistan, Najy Benhassine, called on FBR Chairman Asim Ahmad on Friday. It was an introductory meeting following Asim Ahmad’s recent appointment as the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue.

The two officials discussed the World Bank-sponsored reforms programme ‘Pakistan Raises Revenue’, which is a $400 million programme for domestic resource mobilisation through the automation of tax collection processes and the simplification of tax compliance procedures.

The FBR chairman gave an update on the progress of the Reforms agenda covering 10 Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) and also shared concerns regarding the difficulties being encountered in progress on reform interventions involving data sharing with provinces and the Sindh High Court’s stay on the track and trace process.

Member Reforms Ambreen Iftikhar and World Bank’s Team Lead on ‘Pakistan Raises Revenue’ Raymond Muhulla were also present on the occasion. It was decided that the FBR Reforms team would give a detailed presentation to Najy Benhassine regarding the impediments being faced by FBR, especially with regard to Component 1 of the Reforms programme, covering $320 million.

The Federal Board of Revenue is on track regarding most of the DLIs and has made good progress on automation of key business processes and signing of MoUs with various authorities for sharing of data. The World Bank’s country director agreed to look into the concerns raised by the FBR chairman over matters which are beyond the scope of the FBR’s administrative authority.