Strategy for FBR Transformation and Enhancement of Tax Collections

Millions of Pakistani rupees have been spent so far on the restructuring of the FBR board and ‘reforming’ the tax administration over the last two decades or so. 

But without the growth factor, the tax system and collection can’t be nourished and flourished. The harassment in the tax collection systems to the taxpayers must be brought down and should be avoided as much as possible. 

Tax incentives should be given to industries, businesses, and entrepreneurs. The encouragement of these very industries is the need of the hour. Unless they are reinforced and empowered with relief packages, nothing is going to work for both of them.  

It would be unfair to lay the entire blame on the tax collectors alone, everybody in the system is equally responsible. 

Following are some strategic points that can relate to the articulation of policies for FBR.  

1. Constitution of the FBR board and governance system, restructuring of the FBR within and also to involve people externally, in a sum up a combination of intellectual, capable, and determinant people have to be placed.  

2. Policy initiatives have to be taken, a national tax policy has to be formulated and constituted. Hence, there are three different provincial tax collection bodies which include: excise and taxation department, board of revenue, and revenue board. Lastly, the federal tax collection bureau FBR, which is the central tax collection body. All of these bodies are operating separately but have the same objective. So, therefore, a uniform tax collection and regulation authority has to be formed, branded, and organized, as “National Tax Agency”. 

3. FBR has to set up a uniform data organization in terms of data analytics, data collection, and data integration. While doing this, FBR has to incorporate people from the private sector. There should be an organizational data-driven strategy that must be inclusive of data; collection, integration, analysis, automation, reprocessing, and simplification of tax laws. 

4. Performance management and accountability of the outcome is inevitable and second to none because this will pave the way for future endeavors and open the doors for the future course of actions. 

Concluding remarks: 

FBR has to collect the tax in such a systematic way that it neither force and nor coerce it. They should collect the tax likewise so that people don’t feel pain, the economy does not get hurt, and but simultaneously weighing both components; tax gets collected and its volume gets increased. This is what the fundamentalism of taxes is.