Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed the authorities concerned to ensure the implementation of reformative measures in the tax system within the stipulated timeframe and accelerate effective action against tax evasion, smuggling, and illegal businesses.

The prime minister, chairing the weekly review meeting on FBR reforms here, directed a third-party audit of reforms to bring transparency, effectiveness, and sustainability to the process, saying that digitalisation, production monitoring, and automated systems were key pillars of the FBR reforms.

During the meeting, the prime minister, who was briefed on the restructuring of PRAL, said that the government’s efforts to introduce tax reforms were aimed at the development of the country.

He said that the deployment of reputed goods evaluators in the FBR was a welcome step and appreciated the efforts of the Board’s chairman and his team in this regard.

He also instructed that the implementation of reforms should be ensured to modernise and strengthen the tax system, increase revenue collection, and completely eradicate smuggling.

The participants of the meeting were given a detailed briefing on the ongoing reforms in the FBR, particularly the restructuring of PRAL, the digitalisation of the tax system, and the measures taken to curb smuggling.

It was informed that step-by-step work was underway on IRIS 3.0, a new tax operating model, and a central data hub to make the tax system modern, integrated, and data-driven, as international consultants have also been hired to design IRIS 3.0. Swift work was underway on a project under IRIS 3.0 to make the tax system more effective, pilot auto-taxation, and utilise artificial intelligence and machine learning in the future to improve tax collection.

The participants were told that new senior-level appointments have been made in PRAL across various sectors, including technology, data security, operations, and the tax domain.