FBR directed to avoid revenue figure fudging

Islamabad—Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs here on Wednesday appreciating the role of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to punish the officers involved in figure fudging of last year revenues, directed that the Board should take steps to avoid similar situation in future. Salman Siddique, Chairman FBR gave a presentation in detail before the Committee which met here with Senator Ahamd Ali in the chair, about the figure fudging in revenues and admitted that it was an error on the part of the Board but it was unintentional.

“It was an error of judgment on the part of some functionaires of the FBR/field formation which has since been rectified and clarified”, he said and added that suitable administrative action against those who were responsible for the error has been taken and further action was contemplated after establishing of vires of the act.

Salman Siddique, assured the Committee that no such situation would be repeated again.

About the recent performance of the FBR during first quarter of the current financial year, the Committee was informed that the FBR had collected Rs. 373.8 billion against Rs. 293 billion during the same period of last year. He said that total estimate for the same period was targeted at Rs. 363 billion and the current collection registered growth of 27.4 per cent. The Committee was also informed that currently total amount which is pending to be refunded was Rs. 55.247 billion while total numbers of refund claims were 46,942.

Where as the total number of refund claims of under Rs. one (1) million were 43,434 and the total amount was about Rs. 6 billion.

Senator Ishaq Dar said that the FBR should refund all claims that were under Rs. one million which would be in the interest of the government itself.

He said that the business community would appreciate the government in this case and specially the people belonging to lower income would be relieved. The FBR Chairman assured the Committee that the Board will clear those claims within 45 days.

The Chairman Committee Senator Ahmad Ali lauded the role of Salman Siddique for his efforts for bringing change in the country’s revenue collection system. The meeting was also attended by Senators Haroon Khan, Syeda Sughra Imam, Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi, Kalsoom Parveen and Islamudin Shaikh.