ISLAMABAD, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Waqar Masood Monday said the government had not imposed any new tax and the revenue target of Rs5.8 trillion for the upcoming fiscal year 2021-22 would be achieved by expanding tax base in the country.
Addressing a press conference here along with Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar, he dispelled the negative impression about the tax target set for the next fiscal year and said it was quite achievable despite taking not new tax measures.
He said due to the government’s efforts, the tax target of Rs4.7 trillion would not only be achieved by the end of current fiscal year but it could also surpass the target.
Dr Waqar said the nominal growth – real gross domestic product and inflation – would materialize 13.2 percent growth in tax revenues to Rs5.3 trillion, however the remaining Rs500 billion would be collected by bringing more people specially the retail sector into the tax net.
The prime minister’s aide clarified that the government had, in fact, abolished some tax exemptions besides streamlining the tax rates in some sectors which were mistakenly interpreted by some new taxes.
He said the government was taking a big step that was to promote digital payments in the country which would ease the government’s efforts of documenting the economy.
He said at present there were more than 80,000 points of sales in the country but only 10,500 were documented with the Federal Board of Revenue. “In the upcoming fiscal year we will try to bring maximum number of points of sales to ensure tax collection from these retailers,” he added.
With respect to collection of Rs610 billion under petroleum levy, Dr Waqar pointed out that although currently there was only Rs4 per liter levy which would not be sufficient to achieve the target, but he said it was hoped that the international prices of the petroleum products would come down which would result in increase in the levy.
He said for last four months, the petroleum products’ prices in the country were stable however, it was skyrocketing around the globe.
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