April 25, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Apr 24: All relevant factors including the current revenue collection trend clearly indicate that Central Board of Revenue will not only achieve the Rs690 billion target set for current financial year but also likely to surpass it.

This was stated by CBR chairman M. Abdullah Yusuf while addressing the participants of the Quarterly Conference of Regional Commissioners of Income Tax, Director General of Large Taxpayers Units and Commissioners of Income Tax, held here on Monday.

Mr Yusuf informed the conference that in the first nine months of 2005-06, the revenue collection stood at Rs490bn which was 22pc more than the Rs401.27bn collected the same period last year.

Talking about the cleansing of National Tax Number, the CBR chief said that out of total 2.4 million NTNs issued, 1.9 million had so far been cleaned up and henceforth this would be treated as Master Index.

“We are entering to a new phase of tax reforms in next financial year as all the 12 Regional Tax Offices and one more large Taxpayers Units will be put in place and all preparatory work in this regard should be completed well in time,” Mr Yusuf advised the commissioners.

He directed the tax officers that all shortcomings needed to be plugged so that no hiccups were surfaced at the last moments.

He was of the opinion that the reforms could only move forward if there was a total commitment at the top tax management level. “You must ensure that the programme of the government and the board is executed as planned,” he advised the participants.

Talking about the revenue collection from different sectors, the CBR chairman expressed the need to conduct sectoral study to find out “who is paying what and what they were supposed to pay. For this purpose, we have to capture the reliable data to confront with the potential taxpayers,” he remarked.

On liquidation of tax appeals, he said that although we had cleared the backlog but still we had some pendencies and issues.

He hoped that judgements of the special benches of the Supreme Court would go a long way to clean up the litigation as they would serve as guiding principles for the lower courts and tribunals.—APP