ISLAMABAD, Feb 22: President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday asked the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to reduce the burden of taxes on the poor, but asked the tax collectors to strive to bring potential taxpayers in the net.

“There is need to bring the potential taxpayers under the tax net as currently many potential sectors are not contributing their due taxes,” said the president while speaking at a special briefing on tax reforms in the CBR’s building. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz attended the briefing.

The president’s second meeting with top finance officials in two days reviewed the country’s economic performance, keeping in mind that a people-friendly budget was required particularly in a year that is likely to witness the general elections.

The meeting on Thursday surprised everyone in the government as the president and the prime minister met only 12 senior finance officials, 10 of them Members of the Board.

The president said the tax-base was too narrow, resulting in the massive tax evasions. Though the number of registered taxpayers has increased manifold over the past few years, only a few of them were paying taxes.

The president asked the CBR officials to particularly tap areas which had more potential for generating revenue. He said that sectors like retail, wholesale and transportation had immense potential for revenue generation.

CBR chairman M. Abdullah Yousaf told Dawn after the meeting that the president was of the opinion that the tax-base should be widened to generate more revenue which was necessary for the development of the country.

“The president underlined that the fast-track economic uplift of the country will require maximum revenue and the CBR will have to speed up its efforts to achieve new targets through broadening of the tax base,” Mr Yousaf said.

He said the president praised CBR’s revenue collection efforts and expressed satisfaction over the results achieved so far. The mega development projects in the country had been possible because of the substantial increase in revenue, the CBR chief quoted the president as saying.

In reply to a question, the CBR chairman said the revenue collection target for the current year was Rs835 billion which, he hoped, would be achieved.