ISLAMABAD, FEB 16 (DNA) – The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has realized Rs1664 billion revenues upto February 15 against the collections of Rs1404 billion taxes in the same period of last fiscal year, showing an increase of 18 percent, a senior official of the board said.

Spokesman of FBR, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal told state-run media here that the FBR had performed well in tax collection and it collected 17 percent more taxes during first 15 days of February 2016 as compared to same period of last year.

He said during the period, Rs78.6 billion were collected as compared to the collection of Rs66.9 billion during same period of last year. The FBR spokesman said “We had issued notices to 300,000 non tax filers whereas currently one million people are filing their tax returns in the country.”

He added the FBR was committed to broaden the tax net and enhance the tax filers from one million to 1.7 million to enhance the revenue for economic development and prosperity. He said the tax amnesty scheme was aimed at introducing the simple procedure for filing

He said the new procedure would enhance tax compliance, expand the tax base, discourage tax evasion and reduce cost of compliance by the traders. He added that under this scheme FBR wanted to raise tax revenues without inconveniencing the traders and minimizing contact between tax officials and taxpayers.

Dr Iqbal said the simplified procedure can be availed by both the existing return filer and non-filer traders. FBR had collected an amount of 28 percent extra in the months of October, November and mid of December as compared to the same period of previous year, he said.

The performance of FBR, he said was very encouraging in the second quarter of current fiscal year and figures show 30 percent increase in collection of taxes, he added. he FBR Spokesman said that the FBR’s administrative reforms were gradually leading to improvement in tax structure and revenue collection.

The reforms, he said would continue to address the issue of tax compliance and administration. He said that serious efforts were underway to bring FBR at par with the tax authorities of the developed countries for economic stability in the country. DNA