‘New tax measures to aid balance of payments’

FBR official says only imported items, save one, taxed

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday said that recent measures for raising Rs40b in revenue would help maintain the balance of payments, increase revenue and promote the local industry since the tax has only been levied on imported goods.

In an exclusive interview with Express, the newly appointed FBR member for Strategic Planning, Research and Statistics Dr Muhammad Iqbal said that the prices of goods used by the common man will not be affected by these measures.



Dr Iqbal said that they had presented a draft bill in parliament which seeks to unmask secret accounts and to bring to book the undocumented national economy.

Further, he said that they were currently in consultations with provinces over tax on the sale and purchase of property. The board was working on increasing the tax to GDP ratio from its current low position of 13 per cent to 15 per cent.

The FBR official rejected the notion that the mini-budget would cause further inflation. He said that of all the items on which the government had imposed additional federal excise duty, only one item was produced locally.



He added that the government will not allow prices of locally produced items to go up because the tax has been levied only on the imported goods and only the rich will have to bear the brunt of new taxes.



Explaining the move, he said that prices had fallen in the international markets recently resulting in a sharp rise in imports. This trend, he warned, could cause problems in handling the balance of payments in addition to a negative effect on local products.

Dr Iqbal said that the implementation of these steps will be monitored to check any misuse.

Talking about tax collection, he said that receipts targeted for the current year were on track. While FBR still needs 20 per cent growth to achieve targets set in the budget, he said revenue performance in the last two months has been impressive, growing by 22 per cent in October and 28 per cent in November.



In response to a question, Dr Iqbal said that they have introduced a comprehensive policy to recover billions of rupees stuck due to litigation. In this regard, the board has appointed a director general for legal affairs whose primary job is to pursue cases pending on various legal forums and conclude negotiations with those who wish to settle against their claims.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2015.