ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenues and Economic Affairs was informed on Thursday that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had collected Rs 180 billion during first half (July-December) of current fiscal year.
An amount of Rs 135.3 billion was collected during same period of last year thus showing a growth of 32.6 percent.
The FBR Chairman, Nisar Muhammad attributed the increase in the revenues to elimination of various Statuary Regulatory Orders (SROs), besides bringing improvement in the taxation and administration system during the period.
The committee met here under the Chairmanship of Senator Saleem H. Mandviwala.
However, the committee was informed that there was 5.2 percent decrease in the volume of imports.
The chairman asked the FBR to inform the total benefits of increase in the revenues due to elimination of SROs in next meeting.
Director General National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Zahir Shah told the committee that 70-75 percent inquiry regarding privatization of Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) had been completed adding that it was too early to say something before completion of 100 percent inquiry report.
The committee also discussed the impact of imports of fruits and vegetables from Iran on local farmers besides the matters regarding Senate Gems Hotel and Club and privatization of MCB.
Chairman FBR told the committee that for the protection of local farmers and growers, 20 percent duty on fruits imports had already been imposed while there was no duty on the import on vegetables from the country.
However there was 91 percent decrease in import of vegetables from Iran as compared to previous year while imports of fruits witnessed a slight increase from 10.3 million metric ton last year to 10.7 million metric ton this year.
The committee recommended imposition of uniform custom duty on import of the commodities from other country.
Chairman FBR said that his organization would implement the decisions of the parliament taken in this regard.
Senator Talha Masood suggested to impose 15 percent custom duty.
FBR Chairman said that Pakistan had signed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China and for the communication with China, the government would introduce electronic system in order to bring further improvement in the matter.
He added that weigh bridges at the stations would be established to know the real weight of the import and export items.
The committee was also informed that for the checking of smuggling, tracker system, electronic system and scanners were being installed.
Regarding the matter of Senate Gem Hotel and Club, the FBR Chairman informed the committee that within 90 days, the process of inquiry would be completed and would be provided to the Standing Committee.
He informed the committee that a company from Singapore had purchased the hotel and those people had shares in this company.
Senator Talha Mahmood on the occasion observed that the government had imposed taxes on Information Technology items which was hampering the people from benefit of latest technologies.
The standing committee decided that in the next meeting, officials of the ministry of information technology would be invited to look into the matter.
The meeting was also attended by Senators Muhamamd Mohsin Khan Leghari, Muhammad Talha Mahmood, Kamil Ali Agha, Nuzhat Sadiq, Saeed Ghani besides Chairman FBR, DG NAB and other senior government officials.
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