ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem has said that 100 top smugglers of goods would be identified to make an end to the menace which is causing harm to local industries and revenue collection.
“Those involved in tax fraud will be arrested,” FBR chairman said at the concluding session of a two-day conference here on Sunday on evolving new parameters for the second phase of tax reforms.
The World Bank has given $2m loan to FBR for preparation of the project for seeking further loans for the second phase of tax reforms. This loan would be used for doing studies, conducting seminars to identify areas for strategy proposals.
The FBR had launched tax reforms project in 2002 and ended it on December 31, 2011. The second phase of tax reforms would look at areas, which were not done in the first phase of the reforms.
Hakeem said a CREST-sales tax software-will be rolled out in a month to stop payment of illegal refunds to people. He said that the focus of tax reforms project should be on effective enforcement of tax laws.Broader areas identified for the second-phase of reforms are changes in management, human resource management and performance indicators, benchmarking Inland Revenue Service (IRS), benchmarking customs and border management, tax policy and information technology. The FBR, Arshad Hakeem said, had embarked upon an ambitious acceleration of tax reforms for enhancing revenue mobilisation. Internews
