Re-shuffling in FBR puts negative impact on revenue collection

ISLAMABAD: Sudden re-shuffling of a large number of key officials in Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would further put a big dent on the existing fragile system that has failed to deliver good facilitation to the taxpayers.

It was not an appropriate time to make such a big adjustment that may have left negative impacts on the tax collection system which needs to be improved for generation of tax revenues and broadening tax base, said Mahfooz Elahi, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) in a statement.
He was of the view that FBR has set a huge target of tax collection of 1952 billion, which does not seems to be realistic and achievable because of prevailing uncongenial business environment and inconsistency in the tax system.
President ICCI emphasized that government must address element of corruption from FBR, by ensuring proper working of e-filling system and reducing direct contact of taxpayers with the tax collection machinery.
He cited the example of loopholes in the online system of Sales Tax collection, said that it was not functioning properly, as a result government has extended deadline several times.

Mahfooz stressed that errors in the Sale Tax collection must be addressed on priority basis, otherwise Government may loose considerable revenue lagging behind the set tax targets.
The re-shuffling of experienced FBR officials could prove fatal, as incoming people perhaps could take more time for making adjustments within the new setup, he added.

Copyright NNI (News Network International), 2011