ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: Chairman Central Board of Revenue (CBR) M Abdullah Yousuf said on Saturday that the reform process of tax administration would be completed by December 31, 2009.

Addressing a seminar on “Tax Administration”, the chairman said the tax reform process would not only help in facilitating the taxpayers but it would also result in increasing the revenue collection.

The CBR chairman also disclosed that a Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) in the capital would be operational by June this year.

An official announcement quoted the CBR chairman to have said that the government was attaching high priority to tax administration reform because a vibrant and automated CBR could deliver to the needs of the country in an efficient and transparent manner.

He informed that in the first phase to be completed by March 2007, the number of CBR members would be reduced to nine from 11 at present. In the second phase, it would further be reduced to six by December 2009.

The chairman said that three regional tax offices (RTOs) were already operational while the remained 10 would be operational shortly. More than 22 tax facilitation centres would be established in the CBR building by end of September 2007, the chairman added.

“We are trying to communicate with all the stakeholders to solicit their opinions on the implementation of the reforms of tax administration,” Yousuf said.

He said that reforms were a continued process to make the taxation procedures and laws simple to facilitate the taxpayers.