July 22, 2023 (MLN): The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and World Bank on Thursday agreed to continue cooperation in pursuing the reforms agenda under the project of “Pakistan Raises Revenue Program” (PRRP) in a meeting at FBR Headquarters, said a press release issued on the same day.
It was noted that during the four years of the project, significant achievements have been made for sustainable revenue mobilization, taxpayer facilitation and reducing the cost of doing business under the PRRP.
In particular, the harmonization of Sales Tax laws and procedures among provinces and the federal government was a landmark achievement with benefits for taxpayers and all revenue authorities.
Other key achievements include reducing business costs by lowering withholding lines from 58 to 33, increasing imports & exports through the green channel from 35% to 66% and broadening the tax base.
During the meeting, it was stressed that all efforts should be made to achieve the next objective of launching a Single Portal to facilitate Sales Tax Return filing.
It may be noted that FBR has been publishing detailed tax expenditure reports to improve transparency. Both sides agreed to continue the focus on the upgradation of IT infrastructure and automation of FBR and for the timely completion of project targets.
Najy Benhassine, Country Director, World Bank, and Chairman Federal Board of Revenue Asim Ahmad held the meeting.
Asim Ahmad highly appreciated the contributions and efforts put in by the teams on both sides.
The country director also appreciated the progress and termed the GST harmonization as the flagship achievement of FBR.
