ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Nisar Mohammad Khan has directed IT member and Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) chief executive officer to have consultation with field formations, taxpayers and other stakeholders before upgrading the IT infrastructure.
The chairman also directed them to eliminate impediments highlighted by the Inland Revenue-Operations Member Dr Muhammad Arshad and IR-Policy Member Rehmatullah Wazir while filing tax returns at field formations.
Facilitation and Taxpayers Education (FATE) Member Noshaid Javed Amjad has been assigned a task to hold meeting with representatives of field formations and other stakeholders to collect suggestion and make a report to improve the IT infrastructure.
All these directions were issued in an important meeting headed by the FBR chairman, in which IT Member Dr Muhammad Iqbal, Fate Member Noshaid Javaid, PRAL CEO and others were present. This meeting was the follow up of Board-in-Council meeting in which approval for upgrading the system was granted.
In Board-in-Council meeting, the PRAL CEO was directed to prepare detailed plan regarding IT strategy along with a feasibility report. The CEO has started working on it, while IT member will guide him in the process.
At first level, a complete solution will be suggested to resolve the issues, especially uploading and speed of server, which were faced by the tax payers at the time of filing tax returns online in order to ensure in time filing of returns.
After improving the infrastructure, the FATE member will launch an awareness campaign in which traders and taxpayers will be informed about latest changing in the system through chambers and trade bodies.
The FBR is also considering a suggestion to get funding from international financial institutions to meet the expenses for improving the infrastructure.