ISLAMABAD – Standing Committee of Senate on Finance Revenue and EconomicAffairs on Monday was informed that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) hascollectedRs 1280 billion against a target of Rs1447 billion by October 31, which was16.3 percent higher than previous year.
The Committee was informed about details of revenue collected during theFinancial Year 2019-20 as against a target of PKR 5.5 trillion by the FBR.
The meeting of Committee was chaired by Senator Farooq Hamid Naek here atParliament House.
Briefing about details of increase in number of tax-payers in the currentfinancial year, it was informed by the senior FBR official that an increaseof 65.2 percent was witnessed vis-a-vis the corresponding period of lastyear.
The Committee was also informed that out of 2655081 return filers, 888748new tax-payers have been added.
The number of individuals that availed Asset Declaration Ordinance 2019 was124,208. Tax-payers of PKR 4.7 billion under the present scheme was alsoobserved, he said.
The Committee took up the agenda which included smuggling of LED TVs,referred by Chairman Senate, briefing on details of non-performing loansand reasons for increase since July 2018, steps taken to get Pakistan outof the FATF Grey List and details of tax collection 2019-20, increase innumber of tax-payers and sums of money recovered.
Discussing the details of smuggling of LED TVs, the body was informed thatthe ongoing momentum of countrywide enforcement operations againstsmuggling of goods including LED TVs was in full swing. These measures haveregistered an increase of 40 percent during FY 2018-19 as compared toprevious financial years.
It was pointed out that the main challenge, faced by the agency, was a aban on recruitment which has now been lifted.
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The Committee stressed the need for training of forces that have beengranted anti-smuggling powers such as the Coast Guards and Frontier Corps.
Reviewing whether increases in taxes and duties have contributed to a risein smuggling of goods, the Committee was informed that there was zeropercent tax on raw material and it was done specifically to encourageindustrialization. The body also called for legislation on the specificissue.
Deliberating the steps taken to get Pakistan out of the FATF Grey List, theCommittee was informed that Pakistan was committed to align the countrywith global financial system and position Pakistan as a reliable partner incountering global ML/TF challenges.
Towards this end, Pakistan has formalized Internal Action Plan to revamplegal regulatory and supervising framework.
It called for legislative re-vamp in banking and financial systems,institutional reorganization and capacity building, addressing enforcementE-governance and financial challenges, autonomy of regulatory framework andregimes while ensuring their permanency.
In addition to this, Pakistan sought to revamp the entire AML/CFT Regime.According to FATF assessment Pakistan has largely addressed five out of 27action items.
The meeting was attended by Senators Syed Shibli Faraz, Mohsin Aziz, MianMuhammad Ateeq Shaikh, Muhammad Akram and senior officers from the Ministryof Finance Revenue and Economic Affairs, FBR, State Bank Of Pakistan, andCustoms of Pakistan.
