Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Amjed Zubair Tiwana said, that the blocking of mobile phone SIMs and the disconnection of utility connections of non-filers will start from January 2024.
Talking to a selected group of journalists, he said the last date to respond to the notices was December 28-29, 2023. Subsequently, the FBR will issue a general order containing names of the non-compliant non-filers, whose electricity and gas connections would be disconnected.
It is a legal requirement to issue names after the issuance of notices to the non-filers. After this, the process of disconnection of electricity/gas connections and blockage of SIMs would be started.
The FBR has moved a summary to the federal cabinet for the appointment of two members of the Anti-Benami Adjudicating Authority.
The FBR Chairman informed that the Anti-Benami Adjudicating Authority would soon become functional. The federal cabinet is expected to consider the summary in the next meeting.
About the ongoing reforms in the tax administration, the FBR chairman confirmed that there is a proposal to set up a separate Customs Board from the Inland Revenue Service which is under consideration by the government.
Amjed Zubair Tiwana said that the pilot project of digital invoicing within the sector of fast-moving consumer goods would be launched in January 2024. All importers, manufacturers, wholesalers/ dealers/distributors, and wholesaler-cum-retailers of fast-moving consumer goods would operate under FBR’s electronic sales tax (e-ST) integration system, he said.
FBR Chairman was confident to add 1.5 million new filers into the tax net under the ongoing exercise of broadening the tax base.
The FBR chairman said that the major obstacle to the performance of the FBR is the limited resources. The FBR’s revenue collection would further increase following the availability of ample resources with the FBR.
He added that the momentum of revenue collection would increase in the second half (January-June) of 2023-24. During the last fiscal year, the FBR collected 45 percent of the total collection during the first half of 2022-23.
FBR chairman said there is a significant increase in tax collection from FBR’s efforts from advance taxes and assessments during the first six months of 2023-24.
The ratio of imports and domestic taxes revealed that nearly 40 percent of taxes are coming from imports, whereas, 60 percent from domestic stage, he maintained.
Responding to a question, he said that the FBR has effectively controlled the element of maladministration in refund payments at the lower level of verification, he added.
