Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan said on Monday that reforms were being initiated in various sectors to strengthen the country’s economy.

While speaking at the farewell reception, given by the senior officers of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on the eve of his retirement, Khan said that the details of these reforms would be made public very soon. He said that the tax growth during the last year was 25 percent and the targets of tax collection for the incoming budget would also be achieved through checking the tax avoidance culture.

He said that the SECP and FBR would continue their consultations with regard to the proposals for the incoming budget and expressed the hope that the next budget would reflect 70 percent measures relating to direct taxes. Khan praised the reforms introduced in SECP during the last two years, especially appreciating the sincere efforts of Zafar Hijazi for turning the organisation into a strong regulatory body.

He said that the integration of stock exchanges into Pakistan Stock Exchange was a landmark achievement of SECP and so was the Companies Bill, 2016. He said the significant and comprehensive changes brought in regulations by the SECP had increased the level of transparency, which was bound to positively impact the economy of the country.

He said there has been excellent cooperation between FBR and SECP during the last two years, especially regarding measures with regard to the capital gain tax and two percent reduction for Sharia Compliant Companies. The proposal of SECP on REIT rentals 5 percent tax on disposal of immoveable property of rental REITs till June 2019 was accepted. Similarly the proposal on list Sukuk tax neutrality no bearing on any type of reduction in tax collection and the efforts were only for the promotion of Islamic Finance and creation of a level-playing field for Shariah compliant instruments was accepted. He was confident that this level of cooperation between the two organisations would continue.

Earlier the Chairman SECP, Zafar Hijazi, lauded the services of Nasir Muhammad Khan in FBR and congratulating him for leaving the organization with a spotless service record. He said during his stint, the cooperation and coordination between the SECP and FBR increased, we achieved agreement on many tax measures and because of the tax relief, mutual funds investment increased by Rs 25 billion during last three months.