Rs2.7trn revenue stuck in courts/appeals: Aurangzeb, FBR chief discuss strategy

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Friday shared a strategy with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb to clear stuck-up revenue of Rs2.7 trillion in courts/appeals after the passage of Tax Laws Amendment Bill 2024.

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb visited the Federal Board of Revenue Headquarters Friday and held a meeting with Chairman FBR and Members of the Board to review the revenue collection performance of FBR. Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan was also present on the occasion.

During the meeting, Chairman FBR gave a detailed briefing to the Minister about the revenue collection efforts of FBR for the current financial year 2023-24. The Chairman also briefed about measures being taken for digitalization of FBR to further improve its performance.

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The Finance Minister emphasized on devising strategies to enhance tax-to-GDP ratio and broaden the tax base to maximize revenue collection. The Minister called for making all-out efforts to achieve the ongoing year’s revenue collection target.

Various other issues including pending legal cases also came under discussion during the meeting. It was decided to devise a holistic strategy to actively pursue all the pending legal cases for early recovery of stuck up revenue.

The bill is about reform of tax tribunals as around Rs27,000 billion in tax-related cases are pending at the level of Commissioner Inland Revenue (Appeals) across the country.

There was no fixed time to dispose of the cases. Through amendments in the law, liabilities up to Rs20 million will be appealed at the commissioner level and cases above Rs20 million can be appealed before Inland Revenue tribunals, and the appeals of both these streams will go to the high courts in the form of a reference.

Before the amendment to the law, a reference was being filed in high court on the question of law, but now it has been amended and the case can be argued on mixed question of law and facts. With the decree from the tribunal, the recovery process used to start with a 90-day reference in high court, which was quite cumbersome, and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was immediately withdrawing money from the account.

“With this amendment, now there will be 30 days during this period, there will be no recovery until the passage of 30 days,” sources added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024