Day: June 7, 2020

CNIC should be made mandatory for purchase of moveable, immovable properties

KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been proposed to make computerized national identity card (CNIC) mandatory for purchase of movable and immovable properties for bringing potential taxpayers into the tax net.

A presentation made on behalf of Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) for submission of proposals for budget 2020/2021, it is highlighted that Pakistan has a lower tax-to-GDP ratio as compared to regional and other countries, which is causing serious disparity between various sectors of the Economy.

All the segments of the society are not contributing their due share of tax on their income in accordance with their contribution in the GDP.

The number of Active Taxpayers are substantially low, as such broadening of tax base at fast pace is the needed.

For broadening the tax base and to improve the tax to GDP ratio following recommendations are made:-

FBR should extract information from withholding statements, details of government supplies and maintain a database of above third party information. Conduct the data mining and data analysis to generate complete profile for cross verification of data of the existing taxpayers as well as discovery of new taxpayers;

CNIC/NICOP/Passport should be made mandatory for purchase of any moveable or immovable properties, assets and major expenditure;

Relevant organizations, departments, institutions including utility companies, banks, NADRA and information obtained related to offshore transactions should submit prescribed information on quarterly basis to the FBR.

Exemption under Section 111(4) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 may be allowed only to the foreign remittance brought into Pakistan through proper banking channel for investment for Balancing, Modernization and Replacement (BMR) of existing industrial undertakings or for making fresh investment in industrial undertakings;

Effective enforcement should be ensured for compliance of filing of Return of Income under section 114 of the Ordinance, 2001;

Atleast for five years jurisdiction (other than LTUs, CRTOs) should be made and fixed on territorial basis to avoid slippages of potential taxpayers.

June 7, 2020
SBP issues fake call alert; advises not to share account information

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Sunday issued alert warning general public that unscrupulous elements are making phone calls to collect account holders information.

“It has come to the knowledge of SBP that unscrupulous elements are making phone calls to individuals, impersonating as officials of SBP or other agencies, seeking personal information regarding their deposit accounts on the pretext that SBP is collecting information from banking customers in light of emergency declared in the country due to COVID-19,” the SBP said.

In some instances, the fraudsters also claim that the information is required to ensure smooth functioning of their accounts in case ATM services become unavailable.

The central bank said that it never seeks details of account holders of any bank and all such calls made on its behalf are a hoax and with fraudulent intentions.

Public is advised not to respond to any such calls and provide any information.

Please report such calls to your bank immediately.

In addition, these call can also be reported to SBP helpline at 021-111-727-273 (during business hours) or at email [email protected].

June 7, 2020
PTBA recommends restoring Rs1.2 million threshold for salaried persons

KARACHI: Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) has recommended to restore basic threshold of Rs1,200,000 for salaried persons in the budget 2020/2021.

According to a presentation of Zeeshan Merchant, advocate high court, given on behalf of the PTBA, urged the government to restore the basic threshold of Rs1.2 million that was available for tax year 2019 and the rates applicable for tax year 2019 for salaried persons, individuals and Association of Person (AOPs).

Alternatively, the tax bar urged the authorities to allow a tax reduction of at least 25 percent of the tax payable to individuals and AOPs, who are subject to tax under Part I of First Schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

The tax bar highlighted that income under the head ‘salary’ is currently taxed on the gross amount. This policy was introduced by bringing down the corresponding rates of tax for each income slab. However, gradually the income slabs as well as rates of tax were enhanced without restoring the deductible allowances when income from salary was taxed at higher rates.

The PTBA proposed that either rationalize the rates of tax or restore the deductible allowances on account of house rent, utilities, conveyance etc. to minimize the tax burden of salaried individuals.

Giving rationale, the PTBA said that it is not justified to tax the salaried individuals (particularly in high income slabs) at such a high rate when other taxpayers are subject to tax on their net profits at much lower rates.

The limit of Rs1,000,000 for loan to employees below benchmark rate provided under Section 13(7) of the ordinance should be increased to Rs3,000,000.

June 7, 2020
COVID-19 claims four more taxmen as IR offices open on Saturdays

KARACHI: Four more officials of Inland Revenue have died of COVID-19 as field offices of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) were remained opened on Saturday.

The offices of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) were remained opened on Saturday as four more officials of Inland Revenue died of coronavirus, sources said.

The officers were posted at Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) – II Karachi and Corporate Regional Tax Office (CRTO). These officers were included Masood Anwar, Riffat Kamal, Mirza Shahab Baig and Khawaja Muhammad.

Earlier, three officials of RTO Quetta and RTO Faisalabad reportedly had also died of the infection.

The sources said that score of cases had been tested positive in various RTOs and LTUs across the country in recent days.

Latest statistics updated on Saturday reported that the cases of COVID-19 increased to 93,983 out of which 1,935 deaths were reported.

The sources said that during 10 -15 days the cases had been reported at more faster pace in the FBR.

However, despite the fact the FBR had decided to open the IR offices on Saturdays.

A notification issued by the FBR a day earlier stated that the IR offices would observe normal working day on Saturdays from June 06 to June 30, 2020.

The decision to open the offices was taken to achieve Rs415.5 billion during June 2020 in order the meet the revenue collection target of around Rs3,933 billion for the current fiscal year.

June 7, 2020