A meeting regarding tax reforms chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan was held in Islamabad today (Friday).

The Prime Minister said that the issues with the taxation system should be resolved whereas the tax code should be further simplified to facilitate business persons.

The meeting was attended amongst others by Federal Ministers Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiyar, Hafeez Sheikh, Asad Umar, Hamad Azhar; Advisers Abdul Razaq Dawood, Dr Ishrat Hussain as well as Special Assistants Dr Waqar Masood, Tabish Gohar, and Nadeem Babar.

The Prime Minister directed to pay special attention to the causes of tax evasion and said that special attention should be paid to the redressal of grievances of flying invoices. Tax reforms should be such to facilitate the economy and the business community.

Imran Khan, while ordering the abolition of discretionary powers of tax collectors and tax practitioners, said that the reforms were aimed at ensuring transparency in the tax system, ensuring that no additional burden was placed on the general public.

Last month, Business Recorder reported that Directorate General of Internal Audit (Inland Revenue) has recommended a foolproof mechanism to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to effectively tackle the growing menace of flying sales tax invoices mainly in sectors of commercial importers, petroleum and steel, involving revenue to the tune of Rs400-500 billion per annum.

It was learnt that the FBR has received a standing operating procedure (SOP) to deal with the cases involving fake/flying invoices.Most of the frauds are taking place within the sectors of commercial importers, steel and petroleum sectors.