Daily Times

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started harmonising Inland Revenue codes in order to simplify and consolidate the tax laws.

The harmonisation of IR codes has been started under World Bank funded ‘Pakistan Raises Revenue Project’. The FBR said that it had received financing from the World Bank towards the cost of the Pakistan Raises Revenue Project, and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.

The FBR said the government of Pakistan is implementing a reforms programme to mobilise domestic revenues to finance its development vision. The overall objective of the project is to “contribute to a sustainable increase in domestic revenue by broadening the tax base and facilitating compliance”. The duration of the implementation of the project is five-years (2020-2024).

The FBR, with support from the World Bank, is currently undertaking a project for harmonisation of the existing tax laws administered by the Inland Revenue Service of the Board, including but not limited to the Sales Tax Act, 1990, Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the Islamabad Capital Territory (Sales Tax on Services) Ordinance 2001, the Capital Value Tax levied under Section 7 of the Finance Act 1989 and the Federal Excise Act, 2005 with the objective to harmonise the existing laws to the extent possible in order to provide ease of compliance and implementation and to bring certainty into their application.

The Inland Revenue Service working under the FBR is responsible for administering tax laws pertaining to levy, assessment and collection of all Federal Inland Taxes.

Over the years, a harmonization process for the three main Inland Revenue laws, i.e. Sales Tax Act, 1990, Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the Islamabad Capital Territory (Sales Tax on Services) Ordinance 2001, the Capital Value Tax levied under Section 7 of the Finance Act 1989 and the Federal Excise Act, 2005 has continued in order to align the provisions of the four enactments with each other and to provide uniformity and ease of implementation/compliance for the tax collectors and the taxpayers.

The next milestone in the ongoing reforms and continuance of the process of streamlining of Inland Taxes is the transition to a harmonised Inland Revenue Code by integrating the existing four laws.

Consulting services are required for drafting of the harmonized Inland Revenue Code including legislative drafting along with stakeholder consultation. The administrative and machinery provisions will be common for all the three tax laws. This component of the proposed Code would include provisions relating to record keeping, registration and returns, audits and investigations, tax arrears, penalties (both civil and- criminal) for a taxpayer’s failure to comply with his obligations, recovery of monies owed to the government, internal investigations, the legal rights of taxpayers (including appeals), redress processes and dispute settlement.