February 28, 2003	Friday	Zul Hijjah 26, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Premier’s Adviser on Finance Shaukat Aziz assured a two-member IMF mission on Thursday that restructuring of Central Board of Revenue (CBR) was being completed fast to help increase income of the government.

Official sources told Dawn that the IMF mission led by James T. Walsh held an hour-long meeting with Mr Aziz and discussed with him matters pertaining to the CBR restructuring with a special reference to reform its the customs department.

The mission was informed that response of the self-assessment scheme was encouraging as both, corporate sector and individuals, were paying the required taxes voluntarily.

The adviser, according to the sources, also told that total CBR revenue, which was currently 17 per cent of the GDP, was being increased to 18.5 per cent.

The World Bank and the IMF were asking the government to increase total GDP revenue to 23 per cent, which was generally considered a very difficult target to be achieved in three years.