ISLAMABAD: The Ambassador of China in Pakistan has offered assistance and cooperation of State Taxation Administration of the People’s Republic of China in streamlining affairs at Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), which is struggling to broaden the tax base and increase collection.
[the_ad id=”32940″]The Ambassador of China in Pakistan Yao Jing called on Chairman Federal Board of Revenue Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi at FBR Headquarter. The Chinese Ambassador appreciated the steps taken by FBR to facilitate the tax payers particularly the steps to redress the grievances of taxpayers.
The Ambassador also welcomed the appointment of Syed Shabbar Zaidi as Chairman FBR and hoped that under his command the FBR would be able to devise a strategy to achieve its targets in the long run, a statement issued by FBR said.
The Ambassador of China further said that State Taxation Administration of the People’s Republic of China which is a revenue collecting authority in China would be willing to cooperate with FBR which would enable both the departments to learn each other’s best practices for mutual benefit.
The shortfall in tax collection has widened to a record Rs345 billion in the first ten months of this fiscal year.
From July through April of this fiscal year, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has provisionally collected Rs2.993 trillion in taxes as against Rs3.35 trillion ten-month target, according to the FBR officials.
It missed the 10-month target by a record shortfall of Rs345 billion at least, FBR officials said. The collection may jump by few billions once the final collection figures are available by next week, they added.
Overall, the 10-month tax collection was higher by mere Rs70 billion or 2.4%. The rate of increase in tax collection was far below the nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 12.5%, which is quite worrisome.
Earlier, Country Director World Bank Pakistan Patchamuthu Illangovan (Illango) called on Shabbar Zaidi at FBR Headquarters.
World Bank is already assisting FBR to bring business friendly steps and reforms in the taxation system.