ISLAMABAD, April 22: There will be a significant tariff rationalisation and removal of various anomalies in the next budget, says a senior government official.

“The current budget has seen a five per cent reduction in tariff on more than 2,000 items and this practice will continue more vigorously in the budget 2006-07, with a view to providing maximum facilities and concessions to the business community,” said CBR Chairman Abdullah Yousuf.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, he said the people would find a range of items witnessing further reduction in their tariff in the next budget. He also pointed out that tax-to-GDP ratio of the Central Board of Revenue would be increased from nine per cent to 9.4 per cent in the fiscal year 2005-06 by collecting over Rs700 billion against the revenue collection target of Rs690 billion.

“Although we are supposed to achieve a 0.2 per cent increase in CBR’s tax-to-GDP ratio every year, the fiscal year 2005-06 will witness a 0.4 per cent increase and this is going to be an achievement,” Mr Yousuf said.

He said the CBR would collect more than Rs700 billion in the current fiscal as it had improved polices and plugged various loopholes and leakages. “There will be a further simplification of overall procedure in the budget 2006-07 to help improve business efficiency of the people,” he said, adding that there would be more focus on automation so that people did not face problems to communicate with the CBR.

Mr Yousuf said that local and foreign investment needed to be further encouraged for which it was necessary to improve rules and regulations and offer all possible incentives and concessions to investors.

When asked about the tax collection target for the next financial year, the CBR chairman said that officials concerned were still working on it. “But naturally once again this new target will be substantial,” he said, adding that the CBR’s tax-to-GDP ratio was still low and needed to be further improved keeping in view its potential in the country.

The improvement process, he conceded, was slow and gradually being reformed to collect maximum revenues every year. “Our systems, procedures and rules will be further improved in the next budget that will certainly offer increased revenues,” Mr Yousuf said.

The CBR chairman pointed out that he was focusing on the continuation of policies in the next budget in order to collect more revenues. In reply to a question, he said that complete restructuring of the CBR would be achieved by December 2009 for which $153 million had been extended by the World Bank and the Department for International Development of Britain.

Mr Yousuf said that it was not possible to set everything right overnight and that it always took time to achieve the desired results.

Nevertheless, he said that a good thing was that process had begun to improve various procedures and policies of the CBR, with a view to attaining maximum revenues.