ISLAMABAD
Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Senator Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting on Thursday at the Ministry of Finance to review the progress of revenue collection, return filing and awareness campaign undertaken by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
FBR chairman, senior members of FBR, and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance were present in the meeting.
FBR chairman briefed the finance minister on revenue collection in the month of September 2017 and the first quarter of FY 2018, i.e. July-September 2017. He apprised the minister of that FBR is on-course to achieve the tax revenue target for FY 2018. The finance minister expressed satisfaction over the revenue collection efforts being made by FBR.
FBR chairman also briefed the finance minister regarding the awareness campaign being run by FBR to educate and convince taxpayers to fulfil their legal tax obligations. He said that the campaign has started to translate into results as the number of returns received up to September 28, 2017, has increased to 178,945 compared with 54,086 returns received till the same date in September 2016. The finance minister appreciated the successful awareness campaign of FBR and the resulting increase in compliance by taxpayers.
During the meeting, it was decided that the period of applicability of reduced rate of 0.4 per cent withholding tax on banking transactions for non-filers shall be extended from September 30, 2017, to December 31, 2017. The finance minister directed FBR to complete the due process in this regard.
