FBR to Compensate for Revenue Shortfall With Anti-Smuggling Crackdown

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will generate additional revenue of approximately Rs. 200 billion through enforcement and administrative measures including anti-smuggling actions to compensate expected shortfall at the import stage in the remaining period of the current fiscal year (FY24).

Sources told ProPakistani that an additional revenue of around Rs. 200 billion can be generated in the remaining period of FY24. The additional revenue would compensate for revenue shortfall due to import compression which will affect the collection of customs duty, withholding tax, and sales tax at the import stage.

The FBR has finalized a plan to plug in leakages in withholding tax collection, anti-smuggling activities, and registration of the supply chain of retailers, wholesalers, and dealers. In this regard, the supply chain of some major sectors would be documented to target potential industries/sectors.

Five key initiatives of digitization have been finalized under the FBR’s enforcement plan. Besides, documentation of the supply chain and monitoring of withholding agents, the registration of retailers is at the top of the agenda of the FBR.

The FBR will also ensure strict supervision of the digital systems of track and trace, synchronized withholding agents, point of sales (POS), and digital invoicing.

Another plan has been chalked out to take the income tax return filers up to 6.5 million. The number of return filers has reached 3.5 million which will touch 4.9 million. After an addition of another 1.5 million return filers this year, the number would cross 6 million filers by the end of June 30, 2023.