ISLAMABAD, Jun 13 (APP): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday vowed to crack down on the tax evaders and their supporting elements saying that he would leave no stone unturned to eliminate them.
He was chairing a high level meeting at the PM House to discuss tax reforms, digitization of the country’s economy and measures to boost revenues.
Emphasizing the importance of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the prime minister said the Board was the most important institution of the country’s economy.
He pledged to provide all necessary resources for its human resource development and digitization.
The prime minister further told the meeting that during the budget preparations, he had issued clear directions to bring more people in to tax net and that the elites must pay their due taxes.
He said minimum taxes were imposed on the middle and lower class in the recent budget.
He said decreasing the tax ratio and expanding the tax net was the government’s top priority adding that the government was working on priority to ensure complete digitization of the tax system and increase the capacity building of the workforce.
The prime minister also stressed the need to document the economy and increase tax collection through digital means. He directed the authorities to take swift action to bring more people into the tax net.
In the meeting, International firm McKinsey and Karandaaz briefed the prime minister about the past four weeks’ progress with respect to increasing the revenues and digitization of FBR.
Besides, short and medium term plans were also presented in the meeting regarding increasing the tax revenues.
The meeting was further informed that increasing the country’s income by billions of rupees in terms of taxes was possible only after the full implementation of the current policies in the country.
It was told that the digitization and automation of the value chain of the country’s economy will increase revenues and documentation of the economy will also be possible by these measures.
Federal Ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Ahad Khan Cheema, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Ministers of State Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Ali Pervaiz Malik, Coordinator to the PM Rana Ehsaan Afzal, former Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Dr Ikram ul Haq, Salman Ahmed, Chairman FBR, representatives of McKinsey and Karandaaz and relevant high officials attended the meeting.
