The launching ceremony was chaired by Chairman FBR Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed. The event was also attended by key officials of international donors including World Bank, FCDO, IMF, Asian Development Bank, and senior leadership of FBR.
While addressing on the occasion, chairman FBR remarked that the IR Strategic Reform Plan 2021-25 encapsulated FBR’s vision for the future. The country’s premier revenue collection organisation aspires towards building a stronger and more modern institution, driven by the principles of integrity, efficiency and effective service delivery, he added. He reiterated that the plan envisaged the transformation of Inland Revenue into a world-class, technologically-savvy and taxpayer-centric service. He thanked all the development partners for their much-needed support in developing this valued document and assured them of his fullest cooperation in implementing the same.
It is pertinent to mention that the Inland Revenue Strategic Reform Plan clearly sets the reform agenda for the four-year period from 2021-22 through to 2024-25. The plan provides reform actions to improve tax administration in the 4 strategic reform areas which include improving tax compliance, strengthening tax administration, building institutional capacity, and reinforcing legislative framework.
Furthermore, the Inland Revenue plans to address the challenge of low tax compliance through implementing a compliance risk management capability; improving registration, filing, payment and reporting compliance; reducing the cost of compliance, strengthening the audit capability, streamlining processes, and procedures. Needless to add that greater use of automation for better service delivery and data-centric approach is a key reform area. Leveraging existing data holdings and developing further data sources will allow the FBR to better identify compliance risks and allow the FBR to direct our resources to areas of highest risk.
Inland Revenue also endeavours to improve the skill set of its work force and simplify and standardize the IR procedures by providing a common tax code. The IR Strategic Plan will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure the programme is still a sustainable and viable reforms strategy. The envisaged reforms have the potential to structurally improve the performance of the tax system and make significant contribution to revenue mobilization.