ISLAMABAD: Minister of Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh has categorically told the Chief Commissioners of Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) that the tax machinery is required with a stern warning to them that to achieve the downward revised target of Rs 1604 billion for 2010-2011 "those who have any doubt in their minds or are not capable of achieving assigned targets should leave their positions."
Giving a clear and loud message to the top brass of the tax machinery at the Chief Commissioners Conference of Inland Revenue Service at Planning Commission here on Wednesday, the Finance Minister asked the tax officials to either gear up their activities to meet the targets or just leave the lucrative positions of Chief Commissioners "as there is no room for lethargic attitude in meeting the revenue collection target."
"The country needs revenues to meet national obligations and we need officials in tax machinery who could face the challenge and could perform accordingly. The time of paper work and presentations is gone and now it is the time to enforce filing of returns by the rich undocumented people of the country," he made it clear to tax officials. He stated that "all tax officials must have clear targets on their minds to achieve". The sole focus of the tax machinery should be on achieving the target of over Rs 1600 billion for 2010-2011. The chief commissioners should have a clear and specific target on their minds as assigned by the Board. The performance would be the only benchmark in this regard and new incentives would be offered to those officials, who would surpass the revenue collection targets. However, there is no room for any tax official who is not ready to make efforts towards meeting the assigned targets. "How it is possible that tax officials having such a vast experience of taxation in the field formations would not be able to meet the revenue collection targets", he said.
"If some of you are tired and unable to work with full force, there are many other senior tax officials available, who are determined and committed to work on these leadership positions for achieving the targets", he said. The government would provide full support, human resource and IT technology to the tax officials to meet the targets, but if officials were not ready to give the desired results, they had no right to work on these top slots of the tax machinery.
Now the general public perception has to be changed for taxing the rich people who owe a lot of money but are not paying any taxes to the exchequer. Justice demands to bring these rich persons into the tax net. The expansion of the income tax net is not only the political requirement, but also basic requirement of justice. The image of the FBR could only be improved in the eyes of general public if the tax officials succeeded in bringing the rich undocumented persons into the tax net. People wanted to tax those who were earning huge income but paying nothing in the national exchequer. We have to meet the expectations of the general public by taxing the richest undocumented persons of the country, he added.
Secondly, the federal budget for 2011-2012 is coming for which the tax officials must give concrete proposals to create a balance between the direct and indirect taxes. The chief commissioners should give suggestions for reforming the sales tax and income tax. They should also propose new taxes and elimination of certain taxes, wherever required.
The FBR should immediately start the exercise to utilise the NADRA data for bringing 7 lakh potential persons into the tax net. He suggested that the FBR should announce some incentive for those taxpayers using the e-filing facility. At the same time, the chief commissioners should also suggest proposals for simplification of tax procedures to facilitate taxpayers.
Finance Minister said that the potential persons, who were avoiding their national responsibility to pay taxes or those who were breaking the tax laws, must be followed for enforcement of the tax laws. About the reforms introduced in the sales tax regime, he said that the results of automation and IT systems were very much clear in the Expeditious Refund System (ERS). During last period of September-February the FBR had issued 7000 cheques of sales tax refund involving an amount of Rs 7 billion.
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