ISLAMABAD
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan on Tuesday inaugurated a control room-cum-operational room in the FBR Headquarters to coordinate activities in FBR's field formations across Pakistan to facilitate and educate the traders about the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme which has been launched after approval of the Parliament.
Member Operations FBR Dr. Muhammad Irshad and other senior officials of FBR were also present. Later, Haroon Akhtar was briefed by Member Operations on various monitoring and control mechanisms put in place to coordinate efforts for facilitating and educating the traders and motivating them to make full use of the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme.
Akhtar was told that all Chief Commissioners of Regional Tax Offices had already been instructed not to issue any notice to a person who becomes part of this scheme, without the approval of FBR Headquarters. To make the scheme successful and to facilitate the traders community, focal persons and sub-focal persons had also been appointed in all Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) while informative & explanatory material about the scheme had also been made ready.
Addressing the officers on the occasion, Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Revenue, exhorted the officers and staff of FBR to make all-out efforts to make the scheme successful. He said the scheme offered a rare and golden opportunity to the traders to become part of the tax net and do their business with ease and comfort and without any fear of being audited for the next four years.
Mr. Haroon Akhtar Khan instructed the staff at the Control Room to keep close liaison with the field formations and work diligently to address any issue hampering a smooth implementation of the scheme.
He expected a large number of traders of the country to be benefiting from the scheme because of the incentives and advantages it offered them for documenting their businesses.
The Special Assistant to the PM on Revenue also asked the Operations Wing to instruct all Regional Tax Offices and field formations to hold regular meeting with the representatives of All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajraan and the local Tax Bar Associations. "Such meetings should be held within the next two days so that an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence can be built early on to make the scheme successful," he said, similar meetings with local media-persons should also be arranged to create a feel-good factor and apprise them of the salient features of the scheme.
Meanwhile, Member Inland Revenue Policy Mr. Rehmatullah Wazir and Member Facilitation and Tax Education Wing Mr. Nadeen Dar visited Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry today to explain to traders salient features of the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme. On arrival at the chamber, they were welcomed by Mian Humayun Parvez, President of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and others. In their interaction with traders and members of the Chamber, the Members explained to them the benefits of becoming part of the scheme and urged them to take full advantage of this opportunity to become part of the tax system and do their business with ease and comfort.