FBR forms committee for simplification of tax laws

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has constituted a review committee for simplification of the tax laws with the objective to harmonise the existing laws.

A notification issued on Friday said the FBR is currently undertaking the drafting of the Inland Revenue Code for simplification of the tax laws administered by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) with the objective to harmonise the existing laws.

The changes have been aimed at providing ease of compliance and implementation and to bring certainty into their applications.

The FBR said it had hired a consultant with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). To ensure that the draft legislation is regularly reviewed during the process of drafting and to provide timely input in key areas so that the subsequent parts of legislation are drafted accordingly, an Inland Revenue Code Review Committee is constituted.

The FBR said Afaque Ahmed Qureshi would be the convener of the committee. Other members included Habib Fakhruddin, Rashid Ibrahim, Dr Ashfaq Ahmad Tunio, Hamid Atiq Sarwar, Ch. Muhammad Tarique, Malik Amjad Zubair Tiwana and Zafar Rafique (member/secretary).

The FBR said the committee would meet every fortnight to incrementally review the draft code. The committee would comment on and provide guidance on the draft legislation and issue shared by the consultant.

“In key areas that are likely to have significant consequential impact on the drafting of the subsequent parts of legislation, the matter may be referred to the FBR through Member (IR-Policy) for a final decision so that subsequent drafting can be done under clear policy guidelines,” the FBR said.

The draft of the provisions, as well as key decisions, will be shared with the committee members in soft form well before the meeting.

The complete draft of the part/chapter of draft legislation may be presented before the committee for the final review after which it will be reconsidered at the time of the final approval of legislation.