‘Sales tax evasion equals half of tax leakage: Aurangzeb

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb stated on Thursday that 50% of the tax leakage, which the government had previously estimated to be worth Rs. 7 trillion, was caused by enterprises evading sales tax.
Together with Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Rashid Langrial, the finance minister spoke at a press conference in Islamabad about his desire to confront the “war on tax fraud” and the need to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio to 13 percent.
He stated, “It is crucial that we include everyone and have a fact-based conversation.” “This is not an emotional discussion; it is not a discussion at the level of 10,000 feet.”

In order for us to remain a viable nation, he stated, the tax burden, which hitherto mostly fell on the salaried and manufacturing classes, “has to now be taken evenly to bring tax-to-GDP ratio up.”
The finance minister gave a slide-show presentation on tax fraud, arguing that in order to combat it, a “fact-based” conversation was necessary.
Conversely, we enter a fair tax system in which all industries have a role to play.
He emphasised that, as previously mentioned, there was an aggregate leakage of over Rs7 trillion, and that income tax evasion was valued at Rs1.3 trillion.
He made the observation, “If you see, almost 50% of that is sales tax evasion.” Roughly half of that amount, or 3.4 trillion, is lost to sales tax avoidance.