Author: Mrs. Anjum Shahnawaz

IR officer awarded major penalty of removal from service

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has imposed major penalty of ‘removal from service’ an officer of BS-18 Inland Revenue Service (IRS) for misconduct.

According to a notification issued by the FBR stated that disciplinary proceedings were initiated against Syed Nasir Jamal Shah (IRS/BS-18) Deputy Commissioner-IR, Corporate Tax Office, Lahore under Rule 7 of Civil Servants (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules, 2020 on account of unauthorized absence from duty w.e.f. September 28, 2020; through Direct Show Cause Notice dated January 11, 2021 on the charges of misconduct.

Syed Nasir Jamal Shah (IRS/BS-18) furnished reply to the show cause notice wherein the officer stated that he applied for leave of 400 days and submitted application to the Commissioner-IR, CTO, Lahore on November 03, 2020 for onward submission to the Member (Admn), FBR, Islamabad and the same was forwarded to the Board on November 09, 2020.

The officer further stated that the allegation of absence without any intimation is based on some omission in record. The accused officer also requested for opportunity of personal hearing before finalization of the proceedings. Secretary, Revenue Division/Chairman, FBR being Authority in the instant case appointed Member (Admn/HR) as Hearing Officer to grant personal hearing to the accused officer under Rule 17 of Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020.

Hearing Officer/Member (Admn/HR) granted personal hearing to the accused officer on March 15, 2021. During the course of personal hearing the accused officer was asked to put forward his defence, but the accused officer did not have anything substantial to elaborate in his defence.

The contentions of the officer that his higher officers in CTO, Lahore were aware of his leave submission was also found unsatisfactory in purview of the prevailing instruct ions of the government which are very clear i.e. the officer cannot absent himself until and unless the leave applied by the officer is approved by the Competent Authority.

Reference in this regard is made to Establishment Division’s O.M No.1/34/57-ME dated 12-11-1957 which states that “a government servant should not absent himself from office without leave”.

Furthermore, Establishment Division’s O.M.No.6/3/81-RI(DI) dated 26-07-1981 states that “a civil servant continues to be in service till his resignation is accepted and cannot absent himself from his duties without proper leave” Establishment Division’s O.M No.15/6/85-R.2 dated 03-03-1986 states that “if a civil servants absents himself from duty, till his resignation is accepted by the Competent Authority, he is liable to be proceeded against under the (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules which may also result in dismissal from Government Service”. Moreover, leave application of Syed Nasir Jamal Shah (IRS/BS-18) was silent about date of availing of the requested leave.

The failure to comply with the instructions of the government construes misconduct on part of the officer. Furthermore, during the case of personal hearing the accused officer failed to bring up justification/reasons to defend his unauthorized absence from duty. Attitude and conduct of the accused officer was highly casual and irresponsible.

Information collected from field revealed that he is running his own academy in Lahore, doing business and is not at all interested in government service and keeping this as a standby option.

After considering the charges framed in the Show Cause Notice and available record including the reply furnished by the accused officer, the Hearing Officer came to the conclusion that the accused officer has nothing new to add in his defence.

Hearing Officer/Member (Admn/HR) forwarded the case record to the Authority i.e. Secretary, Revenue Division/Chairman, FBR for decision.

Secretary, Revenue Division/Chairman, FBR being Authority in the instant case has decided the major penalty of “Removal from Service” upon Syed Nasir Jamal Shah (IRS/BS-18) Deputy Commissioner-IR, Corporate Tax Office, Lahore under rule 4(3)(d) of Civil Servants (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules, 2020 with immediate effect.

The period of unauthorized absence from duty w.e.f. 28.09.2020 of Syed Nasir Jamal Shah (IRS/BS-18) shall be treated as Extra Ordinary Leave (without pay). Outstanding dues/recoverable amount shall be recovered from Syed Nasir Jamal Shah (IRS/BS-18).

Syed Nasir Jamal Shah (IRS/BS-18) shall have a right to appeal to the Appellate Authority under Civil Servants (Appeal) Rules, 1977 within a period of thirty (30) days from the date of communication of this notification.

May 22, 2021
IR offices issuing incorrect audit notices to avoid time limitation: KTBA

KARACHI: The offices of Inland Revenue are issuing incorrect audit notices in order to avoid restriction of time limit as defined in the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, tax practitioners alleged the tax authorities on Friday.

The Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) in a letter sent to Inland Revenue offices of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) located in the metropolis strongly criticized the issuance of faulty audit notices for tax year 2015 in order to avoid time restrictions.

The KTBA wrote letters to chief commissioners highlighting the haste of tax offices in issuing notices under section 122(5) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 during past two weeks just to comply with the time limit of initiating audit for tax year 2015.

The tax bar shared following ‘reasons and grounds’ advanced by the field formation officers to assume resource of ‘definite information’.

— Not declared any capital hence income declared under Normal Tax Regime (NTR) and Final Tax Regime (FTR) is out of undisclosed sources of capital whereby closing stock is likely to be added as unexplained income.

— Accretion in wealth is more than income declared/claimed under NTR/FTR and cash available in last year is insufficient either; hence difference is likely to be added as unexplained income.

— Personal expenditure bears a difference between income claimed under FTR and NTR and cash available in last year is insufficient either; hence difference is likely to be added as unexplained income.

— Bank deposits and debit entries are huge which do not commensurate to be declared income version and difference is likely to be added as income from other source.

— Foreign remittance claimed in the return needs to be probed for the purpose of compliance of Section 111(4) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

— Capital gain on sale of securities and immovable properties claimed in the returns needs to be probed in line with Section 37(3A) and 37A of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

— Gift (cash or kind) claimed needs to be probed for the purpose of Section 39 (3) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

— Total liability in wealth has decreased from previous year which since a liability was definitely paid-off from unexplained source of income and liable to be treated as unexplained expenditure in line with Section 111 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

— Interestingly a number of such notices have also been issued where audits for the tax year 2015 have already been concluded.

The KTBA said that notices had wrongly been issued by the field formation without properly appreciating returns of income tax as well as statements of wealth and also without proper application of mind as host of such cases pertains to income from property, salary, dividend etc. and also because the grounds advanced in the notices do not constitute ‘definite information’ within the meaning of Section of 122(8) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

“As the time limitation prescribed for initiating proceedings for the tax year 2015 draws closer, bar members are afraid of encountering more such weird notices in days to come, which in no way tend to serve the purpose of the Ordinance and are likely to create chaotic situation,” the tax bar said.

May 21, 2021
Stock market gains 341 points on tax incentive hopes

KARACHI: The stock market gained 341 points on Friday as investors hoped tax incentives in the upcoming budget. The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 45,915 points as against previous day’s closing of 45,574 points, showing an increase of +341 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that resolution of dispute between the members of ruling party as well as anticipation of tax incentives for the industries in the upcoming budget helped KSE100 index put up a formidable addition of 374 points during the session and ended the session +341 points.

Deferral of OGDC and PPL for consideration of privatization resulted in a rebound in stock prices of both stocks.

Banks, Cement and Steel sectors also contributed positively to the Index. The incentives proposal for the refinery sector gave way to NRL, ATRL and PRL to post gains. Among volumes leaders, WTL led the table with 99.2 million shares, followed by BYCO (67.5 million) and HASCOL (48.3 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+116 points), E& (+68 points), Cement (+31 points), O&GMCs (+29 points) and Autos (+29 points).

Volumes declined slightly from 784 million shares to 710.4 million shares (-10 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 6 percent to reach US$ 128.2 million as against US$ 135.7 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, BYCO, HASCOL, KEL and SMBL, which formed 41 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HBL (+32 points), PPL (+31 points), OGDC (+28 points), UBL (+25 points) and PSO (+20 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HASCOL (-8 points), PIBTL (-6 points), COLG (-4 points), TRG (-4 points) and PSX (-4 points).

May 21, 2021
FBR to refund excess duty, taxes on mobile phone clearance

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday said that it will refund excess duty and taxes collected on mobile phone clearance due to glitches found in the WeBOC.

The FBR issued an explanation over excess payment of duty and taxes at the time of clearance of mobile phones.

The FBR said that recently, in a meeting with PTA, it transpired that the passengers can register up to 5 mobile phones on their passports and in case of high end phones of more than USD 500, the difference of duty/taxes between passport and CNIC registration is about Rs. 9,000/.

Accordingly, in order to correct this anomaly and to limit the registration of mobile phone against passport up to one set, the WeBOC module was modified through CRF (change request form).

However, during the process, the exemption of withholding tax was also deleted and thus now the system was showing total taxes on passport as Rs 36,720/-.

FBR stated that the issue has been taken up with Director (R&A) Karachi and the team is reviewing the module to resolve the issue and restore the previous amount of leviable duty/taxes.

The issue will be resolved tomorrow afternoon.

“Due to this glitch in the system, all those who paid more duty would be refunded the excess amount forthwith,” the FBR said.

May 21, 2021
Rupee recovers nine paisas in interbank

KARACHI: The Pak Rupee recovered nine paisas against the dollar on Friday owing to reduction in requirement of statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) for exchange companies.

The rupee ended Rs153.36 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs153.45 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

The rupee was continuously deteriorating against the dollar on resumption of trading after Eid holidays.

Currency experts said that a day earlier the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reduced the requirement of SLR from 25 percent to 15 percent for exchange companies in order to facilitate inflow of home remittances through banking channels.

Further, the experts said that the inflows of export receipt also helped the rupee to make gain.

They said that the dollar may rebound in coming days due to payment demand for imports and corporate sector.

May 21, 2021
PSX proposes elimination of capital gain tax to attract investors

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has proposed time-bound elimination of capital gain tax (CGT) in order to attract new local and foreign investors.
(more…)

May 20, 2021
Ayub assumes charge of MD NTDC

LAHORE: Engr. Muhammad Ayub has officially assumed the charge of Managing Director of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), a statement said on Thursday.
(more…)

May 20, 2021
Amnesty scheme should be extended for one year: ABAD

KARACHI: The Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) has demanded the government of extending the amnesty scheme granted for boosting of construction sector.

ABAD Chairman Fayyaz Ilyas in a statement demanded to extend amnesty scheme for real estate and construction industry by at least one year.

He said that due to unprecedented situation created by Corona pandemic all over the country and long delay in approval of building plans in Sindh a number of builders and developers could not register their projects under this amnesty scheme.

Fayyaz Ilyas said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced and once extended Special package for real estate and construction industry for economic growth through construction industry because this industry is considered the backbone of the economy all over the world.

Under extended package, source of income will not be asked for investment in real estate and construction upto 30th June, 2021, Fixed Tax Regime for builders and developers upto 31st December, 2021 and project completion period was extended upto 30th June, 2022.

Chairman ABAD requested the government to extend these periods atleast upto 30th June, 2022, 31st December, 2022 and 30th June, 2023 respectively so that those people can avail this package who could not avail due to pandemic and lengthy delay in project approvals.

He said that Pakistan’s economy like other parts of the world has suffered a lot due to corona pandemic.

It is evident that despite the second wave of corona pandemic production of cement, iron bars, paints, tiles etc have created new records, he said adding that to continue momentum of the economic growth the government should extend the Special package for real estate and construction industry otherwise the results achieved through this package will go in the vain.

May 20, 2021
Equity market ends down by 108 points in range bound trading

KARACHI: The equity market ended down by 108 points on Thursday as the trading activity remained range bound owing to political uncertainty.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 45,574 points as against previous day’s closing of 45,682 points, showing a decline of 108 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded range bound oscillating between +149 points and -163 points, ending the session -108 points.

Political uncertainty continued playing with sentiments today besides selling in E&P stocks due to concern over crude oil price in international market and liquidity crunch affecting operational performance of underlying companies.

Banking stocks followed suit with negative price performance. Besides, Technology stocks saw selling pressure in TRG that put additional pressure on the Index.

BYCO, which saw significant share transfers in NDMs yesterday, realized healthy volumes with price uptick in the regular market, topping the volume leaders.

HASCOL realized an upper circuit closing for the second consecutive day. Among scrips, BYCO led the table followed by WTL (77.7 million) and HASCOL (59.5 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-102 points), E&P (-48 points), Technology (-25 points), Cement (-13 points) and Engineering (-7 points).

Volumes increased from 578.3 million shares to 784.0 million shares (+36 percent DoD). Average traded value on the other hand remained at US$ 135.7 million as against US$ 135.5 million the other day.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BYCO, WTL, HASCOL, KEL and PIBTL, which formed 45 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include PIBTL (+15 points), HASCOL (+14 points), SEARL (+13 points), COLG (+13 points) and DAWH (+9 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-49 points), OGDC (-24 points), HMB (-21 points), MCB (-17 points) and SYS (-17 points).

May 20, 2021
SBP cuts SLR requirement for exchange companies to 15pc

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday reduced the requirement of Statutory Liquidity Reserve (SLR) for exchange companies from 25 percent to 15 percent in order to channelize home remittances and foreign exchange.

In a statement the central bank said it had revised SLR requirement of exchange companies from 25 percent to 15 percent of their capital. The enhanced liquidity with exchange companies will enable them to further channelize home remittances and foreign exchange.

During the year ended June 2020 Exchange Companies, through their tie up arrangements abroad, have channelized home remittances of $1.44 billion, while this figure stands at $1.67 billion for ten months of current year i.e. 2020/2021.

This regulatory intervention of State Bank would provide increased liquidity to Exchange Companies to enable them to play their role in increasing the remittances flow and the public will be further facilitated in timely and conveniently receiving home remittances from more than 1,200 outlets of Exchange Companies across Pakistan.

At present, out of twenty-seven exchange companies of ‘A’ category, 18 exchange companies are providing home remittances services.

May 20, 2021