FBR needs Rs149b in 15 days

ISLAMABAD - Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will have to collect Rs 149 billion in the next fifteen days to meet the revised annual revenue target of Rs 1,179 billion set for the outgoing financial year 2008-09.
Chairman FBR Sohail Ahmad stated this while addressing a post-budget press conference here at FBR House on Monday.
He said tax authorities had so far accumulated Rs 1,030 billion and he hoped that in next two weeks the tax authorities would collect Rs 149. In the first fifteen days of June, FBR collected only Rs 28 billion, he informed.
He said economic slow down, falling oil prices, cut in Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) had become hurdles in achieving budgetary target of Rs 1,250 billion and the target was revised to Rs 1179 billion. He told the media that for revenue generation measures for the next financial year 2009-10, steps were taken to support the manufacturing sector as the performances of this sector was not impressive in the outgoing year.
He said that the government wanted to give boost to exports and restrict imports. He said the FBR proposed several recommendations in the finance bill 2009-10 to support and protect the local industries and they would benefit export-oriented companies.
He said another step that had been taken in the budget was to broaden the tax base and for the purpose, the FBR included the new areas for taxation instead of imposing more taxes on the existing taxpayers. He further said, In the next fiscal year (2009-10) we will improve the tax collection and audit system. FBR will not harass the taxpayers and wants good relations with taxpayers.
Talking about the self-assessment scheme, he said it would not end, however, the FBR would conduct audit of returns of one year. He said that FBR computer-assisted audit would be done on random basis and if any suspected declaration was found, the board would conduct thorough audit.
Sohail Ahmad said that FBR had set Rs 1,377.5 billion revenue target for the next fiscal year including Rs 69 billion new taxes. The ratio of direct and indirect taxes would be 40 and 60 per cent respectively for the next year, he said. He was of the view that enhanced PSDP for the next year and increasing petroleum prices in international market would help achieve the revenue target of Rs 1377.5 billion.
To a question about incentives reward to the employees, the Chairman said, We cant provide incentive package because FBR has not performed well in the current year, as the revenue collection is not impressive. However, he said FBR would give performance-based incentive rewards to its employees. The reward would be given to those employees who achieved their targets and showed good performance, he added.
He said FBR wanted to ensure that the tax disputes were not delayed and resolved timely. Recommendation given by the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee (ADRC) regarding the disputes would be accepted to resolve tax problems at the earliest, he added.