The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has lauded the new approach of FBR for selection of lesser number of audit cases for income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty for the tax year 2017 through computer balloting and termed it a healthy approach that would minimize the audit related issues of the taxpayers and encourage non-filers towards tax net.
 

Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that  last year, FBR had selected around 45000 audit cases that have been reduced to just over 14000 this year which showed that FBR was now focused on conducting professional audit instead of creating harassment in the taxpayers. He said previously, same taxpayers were selected repeatedly for audit that always created lot of concerns in the business community. 
 

Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that the prevailing audit policy of FBR was quite problematic and stressed that FBR should further improve its audit policy. He said that once a taxpayer was selected for audit, at least five years exemption from next audit should be given to such taxpayer. He urged that for audit exercise, FBR should focus on quality instead of quantity. He said that audit policy should be formulated in such a way as it should encourage people towards tax compliance. 
 

ICCI President further said that FBR should review the audit powers of Commissioners to issue audit notices to taxpayers and these powers should be clearly defined as the current trend of frequent issuance of audit notices to the same taxpayers was not making any useful contribution towards expansion of tax base in the country.  He said separation of assessment office from the audit office could be a good option to improve audit process. He emphasized that FBR should utilize technology to eliminate direct interaction between tax officials and taxpayers.

He assured that business community would fully support FBR initiatives to bring reforms in audit policy with a view to change it from traditional audit techniques to a professional audit approach.  He also appreciated the launch of new website of FBR that looked more professional and informative than the old one.