ISLAMABAD: A meeting of major political parties was organised by the
Islamabad-based Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in
collaboration with Oxfam. On the occasion, representatives of major
political parties discussed proposals for tax reforms.

In April 2014, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) witnessed a
shortfall of Rs29 billion as an amount of Rs167bn was collected against a
target of Rs196.4bn.

The government has constituted a Tax Reform Commission but opposition
parties are not optimistic about much improvement. The current tax
system provides relief to the rich, National Party President Mir Hasil
Bizenjo said and called for restoring the trust of the people in the
taxation system.

JUI-F leader Asia Nasir called for adopting the tax model of
Scandinavian countries where no one is exempted from paying taxes.
Senator Haji Adeel of Awami National Party called for a uniform taxation
system. MQM’s Rasheed Godel said that the state had failed to provide
quality education, health and jobs to people because of low collection
of taxes and less spending on the PSDP. “If we want to take major
decisions, we should increase our tax-to-GDP ratio.”

Source: http://customstoday.com.pk/fbr-collected-rs167b-against-rs196-4b-target-political-leaders-call-for-bringing-the-rich-in-tax-net/