ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan has agreed on not to introduce minibudget to bridge the tax collection gap, well informed sources told the scribe on Wednesday.
The sources said that the FBR officials held meetings with the IMF visiting mission and briefed them on the overall tax collections and new tax measures. They claimed that the IMF is satisfied with the tax collection progress as the federal tax collection agency has achieved 1.5% growth in tax-to-GDP.
The country has successfully increased tax to GDP ratio from 8.8 percent to 10.3 percent during the period. Both parties agreed that there is no need to introduce mini-budget to bridge the short fall of Rs189 billion during the four months of the current fiscal year, they further said.
There is no need to impose GST on petroleum products which are exempted from the GST, currently, sources stated.
The sources further stated that the tax target of Rs. 12,970 billion will be maintained and the authorities will achieve it through enforcement measures, instead of new tax measures. the tax-to-GDP ratio.
They claimed that the the visiting delegation will meet with officials of the Provinces and discussed the matter related to provincial taxes including income tax on agriculture and others. tax on agricultural income will start from next financial year.
According to sources, the authorities have apprised to the IMF mission regarding the measures taken for increase the tax base in the country. They said that the authorities has fetched Rs. 12 billion tax from retailers in the Frist quarter of the current fiscal year.
They said that almost 400 thousands traders have submitted tax returns. After this, the number of registered traders has increased from 200 thousands to 600 thousands due to FBR measures.
Sources further say that the enforcement from Customs Intelligence and Investigation has been withdrawn, but the Customs Intelligence Department is still intact.
Besides, the Federal Board of Revenue is going to introduce family income tax returns soon, under which a large number of Income tax returns filed with zero tax will be scrapped as most of them are those who do not fall under the tax-eligible category.
