FBR seeks foreign assistance in capacity building, IT infrastructure

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sought foreign assistance for improvement in two key areas; capacity building of officers and staff and IT infrastructure development.

“FBR is of the view that if developed, both of these areas can only play key role in bringing FBR at par with tax and revenue authorities of developed countries” a well placed source at FBR told this scribe here on Monday
The international concerned institutions and organizations have assured FBR to consider request for provision of required cooperation. After getting positive response from the concerned quarters, FBR has appointed Chief IT Amjad Zubair Tiwana as focal person for future engagement with international agencies including International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Organization of Economic Cooperation and development (OECD) and others.

FBR placed this request at recent a three day conference on regional taxation problems in the first week of April in Japanese capital Tokyo. The conference was funded by IMF Japan office.

A three member delegation led by Member Inland Revenue-Policy and Official Spokesperson FBR Shahid Hussain Asad, comprising Chief Income Tax Policy Amjad Zubair Tiwana and Chief Commissioner Large Taxpayers Unit Karachi Dr. Muhammad Irshad attended this conference.

Shahid Hussain Assad presented briefing to the conference about problems confronted by the FBR on taxation issues and sought assistance from the international agencies and institutions for capacity building of officers and IT infrastructure development.

According to report dispatched by head of delegation to FBR Chairman about the performance of delegation at the said conference, topics related to enhancing cooperation in international and regional taxation were discussed in detail.

Assad highlighted four main sectors; main contours of tax authorities, main policies and reforms, new needed policy interventions and to improve the tax base in the region as well as ways and means to further to expand tax base net.

Moreover, in his presentation, he pinpointed recently negotiated bilateral treaties regarding tax especially with Austria and Switzerland. Last Month, Pakistan and Austria signed Additional Protocol amending the Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation (ADTA) with Austria.

Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa and Brigitta Blaha, Austrian Ambassador signed the document on behalf of their respective governments. Austria and Pakistan, it may be added, have been treaty partners for the last ten years as they signed the Convention on Avoidance of Double Taxation in August 2005 which was enforced in 2006.

Moreover, Shahid Hussain Assad expressed FBR’s viewpoint about the upcoming challenges and issues pertaining to administrative capacity of enforcement and audit. The participants tried to learn from best practices of developed countries like Japan in the field of administrative capacity of enforcement agencies. Japan is already assisting infrastructure improvement in Customs.

The participants also reviewed and analyzed proposals and recommendations proposed for the improvement of tax system and to increase the tax revenues in respective countries presented before the conference.

The conference was funded by the International Monetary Fun (IMF) as well as a part of regular interaction among the tax authorities of Asian Countries. The participants of the conference shared new changes introduced to improve tax system by their respective departments in the previous year in their home countries
The participants presented their reports about new changes in tax regimes in previous yeas. The High-Level Tax Conference for Asian Countries provided an opportunity for developing countries in the Asian region to discuss challenges in international taxation with stakeholders.

Challenges in International Taxation for Developing Countries International taxation is now one of the most acute and important issues for both advanced and developing countries.

While developing countries are often urged to introduce the latest and internationally-agreed upon tax rules that enable authorities to address cross-border tax avoidance and train cadres to be experts on international taxation, it is critical to build an effective tax system and tax administration as a whole.

It is pertinent to note here that last year this conference was attended by 37 senior officials from 19 countries in Asia as well as representatives from the OECD and the Asian Development Bank.

The conference covered a wide range of emerging tax issues in the region including energy taxation, regional harmonization of tax systems, analytical tools to strengthen tax administration, reform issues and challenges in tax administration, international taxation, and taxation of high wealth individuals.

Since its inception in 2009, the annual high-level tax conference has provided participants with a rare opportunity to expand and deepen personal relationships with peer senior officials in the region, promoting further collaboration among tax authorities.

This year’s conference followed that tradition, offering a forum for officials in the region to share their experience and freshen their knowledge on the latest and most important issues in tax policy and tax administration areas. In 2013, some 38 officials, heads, or senior officials of tax policy departments and tax administration agencies from 18 countries in Asia attended this regular interaction.

Chairman Bajwa will go through this report after his arrival back from negotiations with IMF/WB in Washington.