Finance minister for improving tax to GDP ratio, achieving tax collection targets

ISLAMABAD, June 6 (APP):Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Planning and Development, Dr Shamshad Akhtar Wednesday stressed the need for improving Tax to GDP ratio to fund the development projects of the country.
Chairing a meeting here to review the performance of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) during the ongoing financial Year (2017-2018), the minister directed Chairman FBR to make all possible effort to achieve the revenue collection targets this year.
The minister during the meeting discussed overall macroeconomic condition of the country and the importance of FBR as the major revenue generation source.
She also sought the feedback from the FBR Chief on the impact of different amnesty schemes and tax rebates offered by the previous government on the revenue collection targets.
The minister stressed the need for upgrading the tax system through the use of technology.
Earlier, Chairman FBR, Tariq Mehmood Pasha, felicitated the Minister on assuming new responsibilities and gave a detailed presentation on the measures so far being taken by the Federal Board of Revenue to achieve the tax collection targets.
He also briefed the minister about the major steps taken by FBR to facilitate the tax payers and the key achievements of FBR during the last five year’s period.
The chairman briefed the Minister that the tax to GDP ratio has increased from 8.7% in 2012-13 to 12.4% of GDP in 2017-18.
He said that the number of tax return filers have almost doubled to 1.4 million till 2017-18 and worth Rs300 billion of SROs have been eliminated as a major reform to broaden the tax system.
He also said that for the facilitation of the tax payers their CNIC has been adopted as the National Tax Number and the number of tax slabs have been reduced to 4 from 7.
He also mentioned the queue management system for the Sales Tax Refund and direct transfer of sales tax refunds into tax payer’s accounts as major reforms to upgrade the tax system in the country.
Among others, the meeting was attended by senior officers of Ministry of Finance and Federal Board of Revenue.