Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday commended the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for delivering a record 42% increase in federal tax revenues for fiscal year 2024–25 — the highest annual growth recorded in the past ten years.
Chairing a weekly high-level review on FBR’s digitization and reform agenda, the prime minister was informed that policy reforms and the enforcement of new tax laws enabled the government to collect an additional Rs865 billion over the previous year — an eightfold increase. The federal revenue-to-GDP ratio also improved significantly, rising to 11.3%, up 1.5 percentage points from the last fiscal cycle.
Emphasizing that no institutional complacency would be tolerated in the pursuit of fiscal targets and economic reforms, the prime minister reaffirmed his personal oversight of all phases of revenue collection and policy implementation. He urged all departments to work with absolute dedication to achieving the government’s economic goals.
Shehbaz Sharif also stressed the importance of treating taxpayers with dignity and instructed the FBR to remain fully accessible to both the business community and individual taxpayers. He directed public sector institutions to provide full cooperation to the revenue authority, while calling for the expansion of the national tax net through sustained digital enforcement.
Among key directives, the prime minister ordered the expansion of the Track and Trace Digital Production System to cover all stages of manufacturing and distribution, aimed at bringing untaxed production under the tax net. He also mandated compulsory digitization of production processes for non-compliant industries and pushed for greater deployment of the Point of Sale (POS) system across the retail sector to strengthen documentation and fiscal transparency.
Congratulating the participants on the successful passage of the new fiscal year’s budget, Prime Minister Sharif reiterated the government’s firm commitment to building a stronger and more resilient economy for Pakistan’s future.
During the meeting, it was revealed that the Track and Trace system has already been fully implemented in the sugar, tobacco, and fertilizer sectors, and will soon be extended to the cement and other key industries.
The session was attended by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Federal Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar, the FBR Chairman, and other senior government officials.
