Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi on Tuesday refuted the media reports that signalled towards his differences with Adviser to PM on Finance Hafeez Shaikh.
“Hafeez is my friend and we don’t have any issues. I was admitted to the hospital and all the news regarding my ‘deteriorating relations’ with Hafeez Shaikh were mere rumours,” he maintained while addressing the All Pakistan Chambers Presidents Conclave 2020.
The FBR chief admitted that certain issues had emerged due to withdrawal of tax exemption to exporters. “We have to solve these issues through dialogue and discussions.”
He said the department was working on reducing the sales tax as well as the federal excise duty. “The tax department will get the CNIC number from person as registered sales tax. Moreover, they would also be required to give CNIC number on making transactions of more than Rs50,000.
In addition, he said that there was a drastic need to overhaul the tax system of the country, adding that tax should be equally divided among all the persons.
Zaidi said that FBR remained unable to collect tax in the past, as the department was a shareholder of 25pc of the total business in the country. We are striving to simplify the registration system, besides reducing interactions between taxpayers and officers.
