https://arab.news/wt9tj
- Sharif directs FBR to intensify action against tax evasion, smuggling, illegal businesses
- Officials say AI-based faceless inland revenue system to begin rollout from October 1
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday directed Pakistan’s tax authority to intensify enforcement measures to meet its revenue target, while calling for continued action against tax evasion, smuggling and illegal businesses, his office said.
Pakistan has been pursuing tax administration and digitization reforms aimed at increasing revenue collection and broadening compliance, with authorities also preparing an artificial intelligence-based faceless system for inland revenue operations to reduce direct interaction between taxpayers and officials.
“The FBR should intensify enforcement measures to achieve the prescribed revenue target,” Sharif was quoted as saying at a weekly meeting reviewing reforms at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
Officials told the meeting that the first phase of the faceless inland revenue system would become operational on Oct. 1, with its full rollout scheduled by 2027.
The AI- and technology-based system will include a National Faceless Audit Wing for auditing tax returns and a Faceless Assessment Unit for assessments, while tax cases will be assigned randomly regardless of geographical jurisdiction, according to the briefing.
The FBR chairman told the meeting that time-bound procedures were being issued for tax refunds to exporters and that problems raised by business representatives during recent meetings in Karachi had been addressed.
Sharif also praised recent FBR operations against illegal cigarette factories in Chakwal and Swabi, including an intelligence-based raid in which authorities sealed a factory and seized cigarettes and machinery.