The newly formed task force convened on Tuesday to review the progress of the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) digitalisation efforts and its effects on expanding the tax base.
During the meeting, stakeholders highlighted the crucial role of digitisation in fostering economic growth. Ali Pervez Malik, the Minister of State for Finance and Revenue and DG C41 Major General Syed Ali Raza co-chaired the meeting at FBR Headquarters.
In its first meeting, the State Minister for Finance said that the prime minister had constituted the task force to submit recommendations in an attempt to digitize the FBR’s systems completely.
He discussed with Mckinsey, a management consultation firm, that their main focus lay heavily on two primary areas: the complete digitisation of the FBR, along with the identification and implementation of quick and easy wins.
The meeting was briefed on ongoing data-sharing efforts amongst major stakeholders to compile information in order to identify non-filers and those evading the tax system.
Mr. Malik further highlighted that four key areas of achievement, namely income tax, sales tax, customs duty, and collections, had been identified based on global experience and the data available within the FBR.
He emphasized that the task force’s ultimate goal was to develop policy interventions which would play a huge role in enhancing not only the FBR’s effectiveness, but also in increasing the country’s overall revenue stream.
Mr Malik further said, “If the country needs to transition to a more inclusive and sustainable growth, then end-to-end digitisation of the FBR is imperative.”
FBR Chairman, Rashid Mahmood Langrial also attended the meeting and reiterated the fact that the Revenue Division’s commitment to maximizing revenue through the process of data automation and software solutions was imperative.
He further urged committee members to propose feasible recommendations to achieve this task and emphasized the importance of system integration as well as the deployment of new systems in order to modernize the tax agency and enable it to meet its future targets.
Four working groups were also established to further discuss Terms of References assigned to each of the groups.
These Working Groups are meant to prepare draft recommendations in their respective areas and share their findings in the next meeting of the Task Force, which is to be held on August 21, 2024.
