ISLAMABAD: The World Bank and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday discussed reform program worth $400 million, which is aimed at automation of tax collection and simplification of tax compliance.
A statement issued stated that the World Bank Country Director for Pakistan, Najy Benhassine called on Chairman FBR Mr. Asim Ahmad on Friday afternoon, for an introductory meeting, following Asim Ahmad’s recent appointment as the Chairman, Federal Board of Revenue. During the meeting the two Heads discussed the World Bank sponsored Reforms program ‘Pakistan Raises Revenue’, which is a $400 million program for domestic resource mobilization through the automation of tax collection processes and the simplification of tax compliance procedures.
The Chairman gave an update on the progress of the Reforms agenda covering 10 Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) and also shared concerns regarding the difficulties being encountered in progress on reform interventions involving data sharing with provinces and the Sindh High Court stay on the Track and Trace process.
Member Reforms, Ms. Ambreen Iftikhar and Raymond Muhulla, World Bank’s Team Lead on ‘Pakistan Raises Revenue’ were also present at the meeting. It was decided that the FBR Reforms team would give a detailed presentation to Mr. Najy regarding the impediments being faced by FBR, especially with regard to Component 1 of the Reforms program, covering $320 million.
The Federal Board of Revenue is on track regarding most of the DLIs and has made good progress on automation of key business processes and signing of MOUs with various authorities for sharing of data. The Country Director, Najy has agreed to look into the concerns raised by the Chairman FBR over matters which are beyond the scope of FBR’s administrative authority.
