F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Federal B-oard of Revenue’s track and trace system to be rolled out from July 2021, Senate Standing Committee on Fi-nance, Revenue and Econ-omic Affairs was informed on Monday by FBR.
The authorities have stated that this step will in enhancing revenue collection in the country.
The Senate committee meeting chaired Senator Farooq Hamid Naek, also apprised that the scope of track and trace would be expended to other industries including sugar, cement and fertilizer, adding that the system would also check on the beverages and help to overcome the issues of under-invoicing as well as expanding the tax base.
The Senate Committee meeting was attended by Senators including Javed Abbasi, Muhammad Akram, Dilawar Khan and Zeeshan Khanzada along with that, Chairman FBR and other senior officials from Ministry of Finance, FBR and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan attended the meeting.
Regarding the track and trace system, the committee was also briefed that FBR had initiated work on track and trace system development but unfortunately it was not succeeded, adding that the work was initiated again and that would be operational by July this year.
During the meeting the dignitaries also had comprehensive discussion upon the agenda of the Bill further to amend Companies Act 2017, the Companies Amendment Bill 2020, the committee recommended to send it to the House.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance Farooq Hamid Naek commented that it was a noble bill and required further pondering that would help to create corporate social responsibility among the companies to spend on the development of those local areas.
While commenting on the exploitation of natural resources, chairman remarked that these companies were exploiting precious natural resources and it was their responsibility to allocate some amount on the development of these areas to develop education, health and clean drinking water facilities.
Furthermore, in the meeting Senator Javed Abbasi also expressed his views by saying that for fulfilling the corporate social responsibility as it would help in poverty eliminations and education promotion.
He said if the companies could spend only 2 percent out of their net profit that could bring significant changes, adding that due to fiscal and financial constraints, it was difficult for the government to fulfill the development requirements.
