ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the authorities concerned on Thursday to ensure effective and swift taxation and take strict measures to implement the strategy for revenue collection.
Chairing a review meeting on the country’s economic situation and digitisation of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the Prime Minister said the FBR’s digitisation was a key component of the government’s agenda of economic reforms.
He appreciated the progress in the FBR’s digitisation and lauded the efforts of the finance minister, state minister for finance, FBR chairman and secretary finance.
Expressing satisfaction over the increasing fiscal space, he said the efforts of the economic team were coming to fruition.
PM Sharif directed the authorities concerned to complete the important tasks related to the FBR’s digitisation by the end of this month.
He said consequent to the crackdown against the smuggled fuel and reduction in petrol and diesel prices, the sale of petroleum products had reached 1.58 million metric tons – the highest ever during the last 25 months.
Instructing strict measures to curb petrol smuggling, the Prime Minister said 15 per cent increase in the year-on-year sale of petroleum products showed the revival of the energy market.
He told the meeting participants that the timely decision for the sugar export brought in $500 million in remittance.
The meeting was told that the digitisation of FBR’s value chain will be completed by March next year and that the video analytics of the sugar industry had already been completed.
PM Sharif also called for early installation of the cement industry’s video analytics system. The meeting was told that work on system design for digital invoices had been completed and a mobile phone application for the digital invoicing of small businesses would be ready by the end of this month.
The participants were told that a new board of Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) had been constituted and the organisation’s hardware and data centre was also being upgraded. Besides, a central assessment unit for faceless customs assessment at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport will start functioning by the end of this year.