Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Friday directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed to ensure that the tax indicators/targets of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program should remain on track and achieve the upward revised revenue collection target of Rs6.1 trillion for 2021-22.

At the conclusion of the 4th computerised ballot of the POS prize scheme held at the FBR Headquarters, the FBR chairman was responding to media queries on the meeting with the prime minister.

Dr Ashfaq said that the FBR will give another briefing to the prime minister on the targets of the IMF program and the tax-related issues next week.

The FBR chairman said that the prime minister has asked the tax authorities to give a detailed presentation on various aspects of taxation, revenue forecasting and reforms in the tax administration.

As far as the FBR’s agreed indicators are concerned, the prime minister has asked the FBR to ensure that the IMF program should remain on track, Dr Ashfaq referred to his meeting with the prime minister.

The FBR chairman further stated that we are engaged with the fund for completion of the 7th review under IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

To a query on the amnesty scheme, the FBR chairman said that there are general reservations over the industrial package and we will brief the prime minister next week on the said industrial incentives.

The FBR will follow the directions of the prime minister on the industrial package, he stated.

Dr Ashfaq added that the revenue collection position is satisfactory and the FBR would be able to achieve the assigned revenue collection target of Rs6.1 trillion by the end of current fiscal year.

On Friday evening, the FBR successfully organised fourth successive lucky draw at the FBR Headquarters Islamabad. In addition to 1,007 lucky winners winning prizes worth 53 million, another 10 individuals won prize of Rs100,000 each, sponsored by Metro Stores Pakistan for its valued customers.

This has taken the winners list to 1,017, winning prizes worth Rs54 million.

Addressing on the occasion, Dr Ashfaq reiterated that for the past few years, the FBR had been vigorously pursuing its drive for digitization, transparency, and automation not only to document the economy but also to plug revenue leakages through a transparent tax system.

He further emphasized that the FBR will continue to maximize tax compliance through various innovative initiatives including POS Invoicing Prize Scheme.

The annual business turnover of retail sector in Pakistan was about Rs20 trillion but only around 20 percent was visible to the FBR for tax compliance. This innovative prize scheme was launched to digitally monitor the sales made by Tier-1 retailers across Pakistan to ensure that tax collected from customers was safely deposited into state exchequer, he concluded.

In March 410,000 invoices were verified while in February 2022 about 260,833 invoices were verified by customers who shopped from outlets integrated with the FBR POS System.

Likewise, over 48.1 million invoices were issued in March against 38 million invoices issued in February 2022 by Tier-1 retailers which are integrated with the FBR POS System. The number of customers has also jumped from 39,000 in February to over 48,000 in March who successfully verified their invoices. This is a phenomenal increase in public participation and is likely to further grow with every passing day.

Furthermore, the FBR has already distributed prizes worth Rs160 million among 3,031 lucky winners in three computerized ballots held in a transparent manner on 15th of January, February and March 2022. More than half of the fortunate winners have already got the prize money transferred into their bank accounts. It is also worth sharing that people are showing a lot of interest in becoming part of this computerized draw, which is being regularly held on 15th of every month in the presence of mainstream national media.

It is quite reassuring to share that out of around 4,200 identified as Tier-1 retailers, over 3,600 have already integrated their business operations with the FBR’s POS System. Their 17,000 outlets with over 19,500 cash counters are fully integrated with the POS System.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on April 16, 2022.