ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in collaboration with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is working on a new legislation involving offshore companies. FBR spokesperson Dr Iqbal told the media during a briefing about the next year’s budget on Monday that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had directed all three stakeholders to prepare a framework for offshore companies. He said the FBR had been in touch with the UAE government for the last three years to get details about the Pakistanis who bought properties in Dubai, but it did not respond. He said that there were some 1.1 million taxpayers in the country out of which 390,000 were government employees. The FBR is getting 35 per cent of the revenue from direct taxes. During the press briefing, Member of Inland Revenue Rehmatullah Wazir said the tax on the income of the Pakistan Cricket Board had been increased to four percent from one percent. He said the PCB had given a proposal against the increase in the tax on the plea that it considered the UAE a home ground due to the poor law and order situation in the country. He said that every citizen of the country was paying tax in one way or the other. He said the FBR had failed to collect tax on the original income of the people. The FBR has introduced some measures to compel non-filers to submit tax returns. “We have imposed three per cent withholding tax on non-filers doing the business of leasing. In addition to this, one per cent tax has been levied on the insurance premium crossing Rs 2 million,” he said. Wazir told journalists that some 10,000 people registered themselves under the voluntary tax scheme. It would be continued till 2018 and the FBR was hopeful that more people would come into the tax net taking benefit of the scheme. He said the FBR had asked the provincial governments to cut the rate of sales tax on services because provinces were getting their due share from the NFC Award. He said the FBR did not want to put burden on the poor people. Zero rating has been restored on the agricultural products. Similarly, seven per cent tax on agriculture is abolished. The FBR has introduced a new package under which the problem of tax refund would be solved. Member Customs Masroor Khan said the FBR had taken several steps to check smuggling. As a result, he said, smuggling of diesel from Balochistan decreased significantly. He however said that smuggling could not be curbed completely due to the porous borders of the country.