February 15, 2022: The government is committed to promoting tax culture in the country by introducing constructive exercises such as prize schemes for the consumers, Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin said on Tuesday while addressing the second computer ballot of the Point of Sale (POS) prize scheme at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The finance minister said the government was discouraging the culture of harassing the taxpayers and instead promoting constructive exercises to increase tax collection in the country.
At present, the total collection of taxes was only 10% of the country’s GDP however the current expenditures were over 12% which means “our current expenses are not met from the tax revenues”, he added.
In order to achieve sustainable economic growth, we will have to increase tax to GDP up to 20%, he noted.
He said the country’s economic growth was not sustainable due to the low tax to GDP ratio, big trade deficit, and low productivity.
The minister asked the common man to play role in increasing tax revenues by demanding receipts from the retailers.
He said the amount of the prize scheme which was Rs 500 million would be increased gradually.
