Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said a fraud of Rs800-billion in tax refunds was unearthed in last four months, showing positive results of the Federal Bureau of Revenue’s (FBR) digitization.
Chairing a meeting pertaining to the FBR’s reforms and digitization here in Islamabad on Thursday, he said the tax refund system will be further improved. He said reforms in FBR can increase revenue.
The Prime Minister said that the unnecessary delay in implementing several projects regarding the reforms in FBR is regrettable.
The meeting was briefed that 83,579 cases worth 3.2 trillion rupee are pending in various courts and tribunals regarding taxes. It was said that the sitting government has taken various steps to resolve the pending tax cases.
During the last four months, 63 cases worth 44 billion rupees were disposed of by various courts. It was informed that 4.9 million people, who can afford to pay taxes, have been identified through use of advanced technology.
The Prime Minister instructed to bring the wealthy and well-off people among these 4.9 million individuals to the tax net on preferential basis and no additional burden should be put on the poor.
The meeting was further informed that 150,000 retailers have so far been registered with the traders-friendly mobile phone since April this year.
Shehbaz Sharif advised to continue consultation with the retailers to make this system more efficient. He instructed to increase the number of appellate tribunals to 100 for speedy decisions of the cases.
He also directed to enhance the appellate tribunals to dispose of cases regarding customs. Besides, instructions were given to prepare a dash-board to assess the performance of appellate tribunals.
The Prime Minister said no delay will be tolerated in payment of tax refunds. He said an immediate strategy should be devised to recover the illegal refunds made in the past regarding sales taxes.
He advised to fully digitize the Fraud Detection and Investigation Department of the FBR. He stressed the need to formulate a strategy for bringing all ongoing reform projects in FBR under a central system.
The Prime Minister directed to hire the latest technology and the best manpower regarding FBR’s digitization.