FBR issued warning of crackdown against the Income tax defaulters across Pakistan
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ISLAMABAD - The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a warning that it will crack down on defaulters from March 2020. In this regard, the revenue board 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 a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, which was chaired by MNA Faizullah.
Dr. Ateeq said that the board had refrained from taking action against tax defaulters owing to its commitment to the traders’ organizations. However, he added, following the expiry of the agreement signed with traders and after analyzing the tax returns till March, FBR will launch a crackdown against 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 taking the action despite knowing the details about defaulters.
Officials of the FBR said that they have a list of high net worth individuals, but the FBR is not taking action against them as the implementation of several things simultaneously may have a negative impact on the businesses and economy.
The revenue board also stated that as per agreement with traders, the turnover tax will be decreased from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent and the limit 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 constituted across the country by traders to help tax authorities to bring traders into the tax net. The limit of electricity consumed by tier-one traders will be increased to Rs 1.2 million.
About the taxation issues being faced by the exporters, importers and retail sectors, the committee members expressed their doubt over the targets set by FBR after removing the SRO 1125. However, Member Policy (IR), Federal Board of Revenue, stated that the government is working to resolve the problems of the merchants.
