New FBR plan to help achieve collection target

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has approved a new short-term plan on Monday to achieve the revenue collection target of Rs 162 billion set for April 2012 along with recovery of at least Rs 10 billion from illegal input tax adjustments by the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Customs during current month.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that an important meeting chaired by FBR Chairman Mumtaz Haider Rizvi discussed threadbare finalisation of strategy to meet the revenue collection target in April 2012.

According to sources, an interesting situation has been discussed during the meeting for fixation and meeting the revenue collection target for April 2012. The target of April 2012 has now been fixed at Rs 162 billion. The revenue collection target for March 2012 was Rs 187 billion. The target of March 2012 was higher as compared to April 2012 due to installments of advance tax during March 2012. The provisional revenue collection in March 2012 stood at Rs 162 billion. Interestingly, the target set for this month (April) has been achieved in last month (March).

This is an evident from the fact that the target of Rs 162 billion fixed for April 2012 has been achieved by collecting Rs 162 billion in March 2012. Now, the FBR has directed the field formations to go an extra mile for achieving the target set for March (Rs 187 billion) in April 2012. Thus, the tax machinery would make extra efforts to collect figure of March 2012 in April by collecting Rs 187 billion. In other words, the field formations would try their level best to reach the figure of Rs 187 billion which was assigned in March 2012.

Despite the fact that target for April is Rs 162 billion, the tax authorities have directed the LTUs/RTOs to chase the figure assigned for March 2012 i.e. Rs 187 billion. Sources said that the short-term plan to meet revenue collection target during April 2012 revealed that both the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Customs and the Directorate General of Intelligence Inland Revenue (IR) would meet the assigned targets for the last quarter of 2011-2012.

The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Customs would recover an amount of Rs 10-12 billion from illegal input tax adjustments. The directorate of intelligence Customs had made cases of illegal adjustments of Rs 30-32 billion and Board directed the agency to show recovery of at least Rs 10-12 billion from the detected amount of Rs 30-32 billion during current month.

The Board has also directed the directorate of intelligence IR to intensify efforts to ensure maximum collection from audit of National Saving Centers and drive against non-duty paid cigarettes/tobacco and beverage sector. Director General of Intelligence and Investigation Customs has brought to the notice of the tax authorities that many persons have obtained stay orders from courts barring the agency for further proceedings in cases of illegal adjustments.

The hearings of these cases would take place on April 5, 2012. If the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Customs has been able to vacate stay order and decision of court is in favour of the department, the agency would be in a position to recover the assigned amount during April 2012.

The FBR has also directed the Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) to recover maximum amount from audit of withholding taxes of different sectors. The exercise would be intensified at the level of the field formations during April 2012.

During the meeting, it was also discussed to ensure recovery from an Impendent Power Producer (IPP) whose bank accounts have been attached by the tax department. Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) Islamabad had started recovery of around Rs 3.25 billion of tax dues from an Independent Power Producer (IPP) following the dismissal of an appeal by the Islamabad High Court. The long pending case since 1999 was decided in favour of the FBR.