ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar asked Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to share its strategy to close expanding revenue gap and meet fixed annual target.

According to report government is now focused on addressing significant revenue leakages worth Rs 1 trillion to achieve annual target of Rs 9.4 trillion.

In meeting chaired by Minister, identified areas for enforcement action included cracking down on smuggling. There was, however, no press release issued after meeting concluded.

FBR identified that withholding taxes were collected by withholding agents but it was not deposited into tax kitty. Another area identified by FBR was related to tax evasion in tobacco sector. Third area identified by FBR for increasing taxation was busting out of Sales Tax frauds.

Fourth area was related to curbing smuggling of dollar and other commodities through Afghanistan and Iran. Valuation of imports has been identified as another area for boosting up revenue measures.

Government as part of International Monetary Fund programme, cannot afford quarterly revenue shortfalls. Thus, it is crucial to address revenue leakages to meet agreed targets by September 2023 and maintain fiscal responsibility. Insiders said FBR has identified five major areas for plugging leakages to tune of Rs 1 trillion at time when tax collection machinery might face revenue shortfall in wake of compressed imports.

Government did not prefer to take any additional revenue measures to fill tax shortfall in wake of slowdown of economy. FBR high-ups responded that five major areas could be plugged in order to fill expected revenue shortfall in months to come.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 14 2023

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.