Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Tax Reform commission (TRC) has emphasized upon the government to strengthen the Tax Audit Function of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Tax audit is the core function of revenue authority and should receive the maximum focus and attention.

“There should be proper documentation of the audit process and the same should be carried out in a structured manner including a review by the supervisor before drawing any final conclusion”.

According to the TRC recommendation report available with Daily Times, it was recommended to the Ministry of Finance to improve the working of the customs department of the FBR as there were serious and significant complaints of stakeholders against them.

The TRC strongly feels that audit function should be completely separated from the rest of the FBR. “A separate audit division needs to be created to plan and execute the work of audit”. It further added that a semi government autonomous body should be formed hiring accounting and audit professionals.

The Tax Reform Commission also advised to Improve effectiveness of existing processes through the work reorganization which reduces tax payer/tax collector interface, provides pre-audit anonymity of auditors, assigns and distributes functions and responsibilities in a manner that reduces discretion of assessing officers, promotes one window operation, assigns functional responsibilities to specialized divisions, relieves assessing officers from non-assessment functions, and moves to a systematic basis for selection of cases for tax audit.

Meanwhile, it has also been urged that the FBR should develop a system with key features of universal self assessment with selective audit, centralized information system, survey and research capability, functional specialization, taxpayer education and customer service. Initiate education of taxpayers and withholding agents through a well-integrated programme of media campaign, booklets and brochures.

Moves have also been suggested for simplifying and standardizing the process of issuance of exemption certificates.

It recommends that the national audit plan should be chalked out each year based on survey and investigative work carried out by the Audit Division. The audit at the field formation should only be conducted under direct supervision, scrutiny by the division based on risk areas identified during enquiry work.

It may be mentioned here that In the last decade income tax, together with sales tax, has become the principal source of revenue for the federal government. Its contribution to total tax revenue stands at 28 per cent, and its share in GDP has increased from less than two per cent of the GDP in the early 1990s to 3.6 per cent of the GDP by the end of the decade.