ISLAMABAD – The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a warning that itwill crack down on defaulters from March 2020. In this regard, the revenueboard has issued notices to over 200,000 income tax defaulters so far.
This was stated by FBR Inland Revenue (IR) Member Dr. Hamid Ateeq during ameeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenueand Economic Affairs, which was chaired by MNA Faizullah.
Dr. Ateeq said that the board had refrained from taking action against taxdefaulters owing to its commitment to the traders’ organizations. However,he added, following the expiry of the agreement signed with traders andafter analyzing the tax returns till March, FBR will launch a crackdownagainst defaulters.
We don’t want the traders and other taxpayers to go through difficulties.Our efforts are aimed at facilitating them. Currently, we are not takingthe action despite knowing the details about defaulters.
Officials of the FBR said that they have a list of high net worthindividuals, but the FBR is not taking action against them as theimplementation of several things simultaneously may have a negative impacton the businesses and economy.
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The revenue board also stated that as per agreement with traders, theturnover tax will be decreased from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent and thelimit of annual turnover tax would be increased to Rs. 100 million from Rs.10 million.
The meeting was informed that over 700 committees have been constitutedacross the country by traders to help tax authorities to bring traders intothe tax net. The limit of electricity consumed by tier-one traders will beincreased to Rs 1.2 million.
About the taxation issues being faced by the exporters, importers andretail sectors, the committee members expressed their doubt over thetargets set by FBR after removing the SRO 1125. However, Member Policy(IR), Federal Board of Revenue, stated that the government is working toresolve the problems of the merchants.
