ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs on Friday urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to go for revenue generation and resource mobilization to achieve future revenue targets.
The committee emphasized on the bureau to enhance its staff capacity and implement the agenda of automation to introduce the optimum international practices in the institution.
The proposed development schemes of FBR for the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2020-21 were also discussed during the meeting of the committee that was convened by MNA Syed Naveed Qamar here in the Parliament House.
Briefing the meeting, TARG Procurement and Automation Director General Syed Adeela Bokhari said FBR had proposed total 26 projects for upcoming PSDP 2020-21, in which 12 on-going and 14 new schemes had been forwarded.
She informed that total estimated cost of all 26 development schemes was around Rs75.19 billion and that the projects were of different nature including construction and purchases for the department.
The committee members, however, expressed their concerns over the proposed schemes of FBR and said the proposed schemes were not supported by the bureau’s vision of broadening revenue system in the country.
Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Revenue clarified that separate programmes for tax reforms had already been initiated by FBR to increase the revenue.
The committee directed the premier tax collection agency of the country to prioritize its schemes before making any request to include the same in the budget for financial year 2020-21.
Furthermore, the committee members discussed the agenda pertaining to the issues being faced by textile exporters. They were of the view that a sub-committee already been constituted in this regard would give its recommendations.
The stakeholders linking to the textile industry were asked by the committee members to present their issues in the meeting of the sub-committee, which would be held shortly.
The MoF’s additional secretary briefed the committee about on-going and new PSDP projects that were under the purview of the Finance Division.
The committee deliberated on project to project basis and approved PSDP for financial year 2020-21 of the Finance Division.
The committee recommended that State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) might be asked to provide their views about the future up-gradation of Pakistan Mint as per the SBP requirements.
However, it recommended that except those ongoing schemes- already been recommended by the Standing Committee on Commerce in its meeting held on February 25, 2020- all remaining schemes might be considered for allocation of funds in the next financial year FY21, as proposed by the ministry.
