Accompanied by FBR's Member IR (Operation) Seema Shakil on the occasion, FBR's spokesman Dr Sarwar stated that the FBR also reversed its concessionary SRO for allowing import of 61 health-related items after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic recommended by Ministry of Health as 19 items out of 61 was issued with brand names in the SRO with effect from March 20 to April 16, 2020 for 26 days.
Now the FBR issued SRO without mentioning any specific brand names after facing criticism.
"During the period of SRO, the import under the specific SRO stood at Rs1.7 billion." When asked about new amnesty scheme for the general public, the FBR member said that no such amnesty scheme was on the cards.
The government has not conveyed to the FBR to chalk out any new amnesty scheme for all the taxpayers.
The FBR is also making efforts to make a combine database for the facilitation of the taxpayers.
From July 1, 2020, the said combined database is expected to be launched, which could also be accessed by the FBR.
A modified system containing combined database like bank accounts and other information could be accessed by the taxpayers, he said.
The FBR hopes that the reduction of customs duty on edible oil and palm oil seeds, and abolishing of withholding taxes on pulses should result in decreasing prices by Rs10 per kg of both these commodities in the domestic market.
"We hope to achieve the revised agreed target of Rs3,908 billion for the current fiscal year but it will depend upon restoring economic activities as business transactions are not happening because of lockdown. We had estimated to collect Rs400 billion in ongoing month (April) but so far the collection stood at Rs150 billion and the FBR may go up to Rs200 billion till end of this month," Dr Sarwar said.
Dr Sarwar explained that the FBR issued generic SRO related to 61 items after reversing issuing concession with brand names.
It was done on the recommendation of the Ministry of Health, he added.
When asked about revised FBR collection estimates by the IMF to the tune of Rs3,908 billion for the current fiscal, he said that the FBR would be able to achieve the desired target with the hope that the economic activities would be restored in months ahead.
He said that the FBR had estimated to collect Rs500 billion in March 2020 but it could fetch only Rs310 billion.
For April 2020, he said the FBR was envisaging collection of Rs400 billion but the collection stood at Rs150 billion so far, and it might be able to collect a maximum of Rs200 billion.
When the FBR official was asked about next fiscal year target of Rs5,101 billion estimated by the IMF, Dr Sarwar said that the FBR hoped that the full fledge economic activities would be restored after the first quarter (July-September) period in next fiscal year 2020-2021, so the desired target would be achieved.
The FBR Member IR Policy added that the FBR abolished regulatory duty (RD) on import of sugar and wheat, and if price of sugar crossed Rs90 per kg and wheat 1,700 per 40kg, then the import of sugar and wheat would become cheaper in the country, so this upper ceiling was set to keep domestic prices within the desired range.