Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the national tax number will not be mandatory for the tax payers from the next fiscal year.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Saturday, he said individuals would be able to file tax returns using the national identity card numbers. He said the individuals who did not have CNIC due to not attaining the prescribed age would continue using NTN numbers to file tax returns.
The finance minister said the export refinance scheme that stood at 9.4 percent would be reduced to 6 percent from today. He said the long term finance facility would also be reduced to 7.5 percent from today. Ishaq Dar said the Federal Board of Revenue collected 1162.4 billion rupees during the first six months of the current fiscal year. He said the budget deficit stood at 2.3 percent during the last six months against the target of 4.9 percent for the current year.
