FBR faces Rs1 billion difference between provisional and reconciled figures

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is facing a difference of Rs1 billion in the provisional and reconciled figures of the tax revenue reporting system during the first five months (July- November) of the current fiscal year. Chairman FBR Salman Siddique while talking to the journalists said the difference was creating a misperception about the authenticity of the reported figures. He said efforts were underway to minimise the margin of error in provisional and reconciled figures and will be completely abolished during the current fiscal year.
He while briefing about FBR’s tax revenue reporting mechanism said there are three phases in tax reporting system under which, at the end of every month, provisional tax numbers are shared on net basis that include banking sector transactions and domestic taxes. In the second phase, under FBR’s tax revenue reporting system, provisionally reconciled numbers would involve the process of reconciling from FBR accounting system, Directorate of Research and Statistics (DRS), Auditor General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and adjustments lagging one month. Chairman FBR while clarifying the process of reconciliation of tax figures said routine data of monthly civil accounts by AGPR comes during the date of 15 to 18 of next month. All DAOs, treasuries of FBR, and AGPR offices are involved in the reconciliation process. The reconciliation process of FBR and AGPR begins on 20th; takes ten working days after which AGPR reports to finance division. The third and final process of FBR’s reporting system include, final annual revenues and cutoff date that is June 30th for cash- no further spillovers and cutoff dates for accounts. Chairman FBR further said in Pakistan, under the universal tax based system, tax was taken on income bases not on assets. He said 60 per cent of 7.5 per cent of the pending refund claims account for 90 per cent of the total amount that FBR has paid off. FBR Chairman has made commitment to the senate standing committee on finance that it would resolve the issue in the next 45 days.