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Disruption in law & order: Karachi suffers Rs13bn revenue loss: FBR

RECORDER REPORT ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has suffered massive revenue loss of approximately Rs 13 bill
Published March 29, 2012

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has suffered massive revenue loss of approximately Rs 13 billion as a result of total closure of trade and industry in Karachi due to law and order situation particularly on March 27, 2012.

It has been reliably learnt on Wednesday that the tax authorities have suffered huge revenue loss due to political unrest and law and order situation in Pakistan’s economic hub, Karachi during the last two days where one day unrest causes billions of rupees revenue loss. The ongoing law and order situation in Karachi has direct negative impact on the revenue collection of the FBR. The revenue reduction would have direct effect on the March’s collection.

A huge revenue loss has been suffered on March 27, 2011. The industrial production in the major industrial estates of the city suffered major production losses owing to thin attendance of workers who failed to report on duty due to fear of violence and non-availability of public transport. The country also lost billions of rupees in revenue, as workers and officials preferred to stay at home. The supply of finished goods to the wholesale and retail markets meant for exports from industry remained suspended due to non-availability of transport and closure of markets. The industry suffers production losses, and port suffers revenue loss on imports and exports to the tune of billions on March 27.

If the law and order situation at Karachi persists on Thursday (March 29), the revenue loss to the exchequer would further increase in coming days. It may make further difficult for the tax managers to achieve the assigned target for March 2012, sources said.

Sources said that the FBR is making extraordinary efforts to maintain the current momentum of growth of over 26 percent in the remaining months of current fiscal. At present the FBR team of tax managers headed by FBR Chairman Mumtaz Haider Rizvi and FBR Member Inland Revenue Shahid Hussain Asad are sitting late night at the FBR House on daily basis to monitor the revenue collection and progress of the enforcement and administrative measures during current days. In the presence of FBR Chairman and FBR Member IR, the subordinate officers are also assisting the tax authorities to monitor revenue collection on war footing. Interestingly, FBR House seemed to be the only government office which remained open till late night to check revenue progress of the Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs).

On March 27, the industrial production suffered and trading activities remained paralyzed throughout the day. It was second shutdown in a month as commercial hub of the country observed a complete closure on March 17 to protest rising incidents of extortion and kidnappings for ransom.

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