ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday reviewed new tax measures to achieve the revenue collection target of Rs3.104 trillion set for 2015-16.

A high-level meeting, headed by Dar, was held in the Ministry of Finance to discuss various options, including the proposed revenue measures with the newly inducted Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) team.

The IMF has suggested to introduce new taxation measures, which will be mostly in the shape of regulatory duties especially on luxury and non-essential items at import stage and changes in structure of the oil sector, which is one of the major revenue spinner for the government.

The revenue collection stood at Rs814 billion in the first four months (July-Oct) of 2015-16, leaving an amount of Rs2.814tr to be collected in the remaining months.

An official source privy to the meeting told Dawn that the new FBR management briefed the minister over the possible intervention of taking new revenue measures in case the collection did not pick up in the next few months.

He said that the minister was also briefed over the performance of revenue measures which were announced in the budget 2015-16.

The revenue collection for this month has already crossed its target, the official said, adding that it would likely to increase further in the remaining six days, which might alter or reduce the scope for new taxation steps.

FBR is expecting higher revenue from one-time super tax on high income individuals, which is expected to yield over Rs30bn by the end of Dec 2015. Similarly, the collection on banking transactions has also become an important source of revenue.

In the first quarter (July-Sept), the withholding tax on banking transactions yielded around Rs5bn for the FBR.

During July-Oct, FBR has witnessed around Rs45bn shortfall in revenue collection as against the projected budgetary target.

“We are exploring various measures including better enforcement to achieve the revenue target,” the official said, adding that in this connection better performing officers were recently posted at the Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) and Large Taxpayers Units (LTUs) to produce the desired results.

An official statement after the meeting said that Dar met with the newly appointed FBR Chairman Nisar Mohammad and other senior officials to discuss future roadmap for increasing the revenue collection.

At the outset, the meeting expressed satisfaction on revenue collection during the first two months of the second quarter (Oct-Nov).

Dar appreciated that the number of taxpayers had risen from 700,000 to one million. But he added that the new FBR team needed to consolidate on these gains now.

He urged the FBR to focus on further enhancing the tax base through administrative measures as well as moral suasion.

The FBR chairman briefly shared the detail of various revenue measures and assured the minister to realise the targets of this fiscal year.

He said that the FBR was taking due cognisance of the recommendations put forth by the Tax Reforms Commission to enhance revenue and improve taxpayers facilitation.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015