ISLAMABAD: Finance Minis­ter Shaukat Tarin on Monday informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs that the government will use technology not only to bring potential individuals into the tax net but also protect taxpayers from tax officials’ harassment.

Mr Tarin was responding to questions of the senators during the briefing on the Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021. The committee continued its deliberations for the fourth consecutive day under the chairmanship of Talha Mehmood.

Mr Tarin said that a portal will be created which will give accurate information about the assets of individuals and estimated due tax on it. He said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and National Data Registration Authority (Nadra) are working together on this project.

On the issue of State Bank of Pakistan’s autonomy bill, the minister briefed the senators on salient features of the proposed amendments and how these were different from those proposed in March 2021. “Impression of compromise on SBP’s sovereignty is not correct,” he said.

Says impression of compromise on SBP’s sovereignty is incorrect

He said the FBR will raise maximum tax on the supply-side chain which is mostly untaxed. He said the introduction of the Track and Trace System will also help FBR raise maximum taxes on the actual supply of products like tobacco, sugar, etc.

On the issue of IMF proposals for taxation, the minister said that the fund has suggested plugging tax evasions. He said the tax reforms should have been done in the year 2010 especially the imposition of the value-added tax. He said the worth of retail sales is almost Rs20 trillion. Of these Rs16tr sales is out of the tax net, he claimed.

The minister said that a robust tax refunds system is in place and we will repay refunds in seven days. He said the government still has protected several sectors’ tax exemptions and will also offer targeted subsidies.

He held out an assurance to the committee that he would give importance to its recommendations. He said that he took up the issue with the IMF to give extra time to the parliament to debate on the proposed measures.

Senator Talha said that the committee recommendations should be taken seriously. On this, Mr Tarin replied that he was ready to sit with the committee on a monthly basis to discuss and resolve issues.

He explained various funding programmes for the youth including the provision of cheaper loans through banks. He said the government was also providing up to Rs500,000 interest-free loans to farmers.The committee unanimously rejected the proposal to impose an advance tax on mobile phone cards.

The representative of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) Idris

Gigi informed the committee that the FBR proposed a tax on the import of machinery for the processing zones. The FBR officials replied to this that the refunds will be provided to EPZ exporters within 48 hours.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2022