ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the Federal Board of Revenue to register maximum number of traders under the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme.

An official source told Dawn on Friday that the IMF had not only cleared the tax amnesty scheme, but also urged the tax officials to achieve the target.

The clearance came after the tax authorities assured the IMF during recent meetings in Dubai that the scheme would not be misused.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar claimed the scheme would bring one million new taxpayers.

A senior tax official, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that the FBR would be happy to see 200,000 to 500,000 new taxpayers under the tax net.

However, he said it would be difficult to project actual turnout of the scheme.

The traders who avail the scheme will be subjected to a lower rate of 0.3 per cent banking tax.

“We have received around Rs9 billion in revenue from the banking transaction tax in the first five months of the current fiscal year,” the official said.

The official said this rate will be enhanced to the original level of 0.6pc after the end of the scheme.

The last date for availing the scheme is Feb 29, 2016.

Tax analysts opine the scheme will hardly attract 25,000 to 50,000 new taxpayers.

On Friday, the finance minister chaired a meeting to review progress of revenue collection in the ongoing Jan-March quarter.

The meeting also discussed the revenue targets set to be achieved during the period from Jan-June 2016.

The meeting had detailed deliberations on the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme and took note of the fact that the scheme had been warmly received by traders and members of the business community.

Awareness drive

The FBR would undertake an awareness campaign to project the benefits of the scheme and encourage the business community to contribute to the national exchequer with greater zeal.

The tax official said FBR has worked out facilitation measures to woo traders to come under the scheme.

A control room has been established at the FBR headquarters to coordinate activities of its field formations across Pakistan to facilitate and educate the traders about the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme.

Moreover, all chief commissioners of regional tax offices (RTOs) have been instructed not to issue any notice to a person who becomes part of this scheme, without the approval of FBR headquarters.

To make the scheme successful and to facilitate the traders’ community, focal persons and sub-focal persons have been appointed in all RTOs while informative and explanatory material about the scheme has been published.

“The scheme offers a rare and golden opportunity to the traders to become part of the tax net and do their business with ease and comfort and without any fear of being audited for the next four years,” the tax official said.

All RTOs and field formations will hold regular meetings with the representatives of All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajraan and the local tax bar associations to address issues which may arise from time to time, added the tax official.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2016