About FBR: Largest federal bureaucracy in Pakistan. Guardian of National Treasury.

ury. It is responsible for auditing, enforcing and collecting revenue for the Government of Pakistan. FBR also has the responsibility for o formulation and administration of fiscal policies, o levy and collection of federal taxes and o quasi-judicial function of hearing of appeals. FBR's powers & functions also include: o carrying out inquiries and audits/investigations into the tax affairs, o commanding arrests, attachment as well as o public auction of movable and immovable assets of a non-compliant.

2-Day Workshop on Accelerating Tax Reforms Concludes at Islamabad

A 2-day International Workshop on Accelerating Tax Reforms was concluded at Islamabad today. Eleven international and over 40 local experts including sector experts to the World Bank participated in the 2-day proceedings. Board Members and section Chiefs of FBR were also participants as were Collectors and Commissioners from Inland Revenues & Customs. The workshop concluded with strategy recommendations aimed at improving Pakistans tax systems and resulting revenues. Recommendations covered following major areas:-

Tax policy Information Technology Change Management Customs Border Management Inland Revenue Benchmarking Human Resource Policy

The Chairman FBR Ali Arshad Hakeem, who earlier in his welcome remarks yesterday, had highlighted weak areas in revenue collection and the need to finance our development from revenues for a better tomorrow, today thanked participants for working on a weekend and providing detailed policy input. Some of the Major Recommendations included:-

- Lowering Tax/Duty Rates over time - To base policy on empirical data derived from research - Software development to be integrated over all taxes & processes - To create a Customs force to comprehensively cover borders, and create new customs areas at Torkhum & Chaman. - Integrate IT, telecom and EDI Messaging with all agencies and interior ministry. - Improve HRM and complete personnel rationalization study

The Chairman, FBR while delivering his concluding remarks, stressed upon the importance of collecting taxes and said

Every rupee we fail to collect will be a rupee not spent on education, healthcare or development.