Hafeez Shaikh chairs FBR policy board meeting

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh Thursday chaired the 3rd meeting of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Policy Board here and discussed proposed terms of references of the policy board.

After the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting, the members proceeded with the discussion on the proposed terms of references of the Policy Board; prepared by the Minister for Industries and Production, Hammad Azhar and former Chairman FBR Abdullah Yousaf.

The sub-committee presented the proposed ToRs before Policy Board for discussion.

The members of the Board gave their valuable input to fine tune the same. There was extensive discussion on the task assigned to another sub-committee which included Hammad Azhar and Faiz-ullah- Kamoka for designing a mechanism of data sharing between FBR and NADRA.

During the meeting, the chair also inquired on the progress of clearance of containers on the Torkham Borders.

The chair was briefed that the situation was back to normal at the Torkham Border and the trade was business as usual. The current situation, due to the COVID-19, is no longer the cause of concern for the traders.

On the proposed ToRs, the chair, after detailed discussion with all the members of the Board, gave certain guidelines to refine the proposed ToRs under the supervision of the Special Assistant to PM on Revenue Dr. Waqar Masood Khan.

Adviser Finance Hafeez Shaikh reiterated the need to broaden the tax net through the use of data, already available with FBR, without burdening the existing tax payers and advised Special Assistant to PM on Revenue, Dr. Waqar Masood Khan to formulate a proposal for liaison between NADRA and FBR for data analysis to fulfill the requirements of FBR and ensure all stakeholders are on board.

Adviser Finance directed that the Policy Board may also look into important issues that need special attention of the Government regarding tax collection and trade management.