Daily Times

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that the government is committed to expanding the tax base to enhance revenues exponentially. The finance minister said this while chairing a steering committee meeting to review progress on broadening of tax base and integration of retailers into the Point of Sales (PoS) system in Islamabad on Monday. He said that a limited tax base is one of the key challenges. The minister said the government has incentivised the retailers by giving tax credit on electronic cash registers in the budget. He asked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to strictly adhere to timelines and benchmarks for broadening the tax base on a regular basis. He also directed the FBR to have a follow-up of the whole exercise of tax-base expansion. The minister said the way forward required the use of new technologies, analytical tools, and end-to-end automation to broaden the tax base by integrating all the chains/outlets into the MIS system by FBR. He further directed to gather data by undertaking interim measures such as the mystery shopping exercise to identify anomalies as well as adding new entrants into the system to yield efficient results. Reviewing the progress of the steering committee, he commended the efforts made by the members of the committee. Earlier, Member (IT), FBR briefed the participants about operational terms of reference (TORs) for integration of retailers into the POS system. He said the TORs have been formulated in consultation with key stakeholders including representatives from the private sector to have a proper system of checks and balances in place.