ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin Monday urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to strictly adhere to timelines and benchmarks for broadening tax base on regular basis.

Chairing a steering committee meeting to review progress on broadening of tax base and integration of retailers into Point of Sales (POS) system by FBR, he also directed the Board to have follow-up of the whole exercise of tax-base expansion.

The minister said, the way forward required use of new technologies, analytical tools and end-to-end automation to broaden the tax base by integrating all the chains/outlets into MIS system by FBR.

He further directed to gather data by undertaking interim measures such as Mystery Shopping exercise to identify anomalies as well as adding new entrants into the system to yield efficient results.

Reviewing the progress of the Steering Committee, the Finance Minister stated that limited tax base was one of the key challenges and the government was firmly committed to expanding the tax base to enhance revenues exponentially.

He commended the efforts made by the members of the steering committee on the occasion.

He said the government had incentivized the retailers by giving tax credit on electronic cash registers during the new Budget 2021-22.

The underlying rationale was to give incentives to the tax payers in order to broaden the tax base and at the same time, reiterated to take stern action against tax evaders who were not willing to be part of the tax net, he added.

Earlier, Member (IT), FBR briefed the participants about operational Terms of Reference (TORs) for integration of retailers into the POS system.

He said the TORs had been formulated in consultation with key stakeholders including representatives from the private sector to have a proper system of check and balance in place.