December 4, 2003	Thursday	Shawwal 9, 1424

ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: The International Monetary Fund has again asked Pakistan to consider a number of tax exemptions for withdrawal from the next financial year.

Officials told Dawn on Wednesday that withdrawal of these exemptions would be discussed at length during the forthcoming visit of IMF mission scheduled for December 5-15. The withdrawal would be announced in the budget for 2004-05.

The withdrawal of tax exemptions are a series of IMF’s conditionalities as part of the fifth review of Pakistan’s economy under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF).

The maximum withdrawal would be from the income tax followed by sales tax and customs duty to raise the level of tax collection in future.

The mission, according to the officials, during the 10-day stay would review revenue performance in the first five months of the current financial year.

The mission would also be briefed on tax-wise collection by the relevant line members along with measures to be taken for achieving the revenue collection target of Rs510 billion set for the current financial year.

The tax officials would also brief the visiting IMF mission about the steps so far taken for broadening tax base and tapping more potential taxpayers under the tax net.

The officials said the five members appointed from the private sector would also give detail briefing to the visiting mission regarding the steps

so far taken as part of the restructuring of the tax administration.

The reform teams of the CBR would also give presentation to the Fund’s officials on the revamping of the customs administration and other steps taken for bringing reforms in other taxes.

The mission would also visit Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU), Karachi, and Model Sales Tax House, Karachi, to review their performance and propose further measures for improvement in their working to facilitate the taxpayers.