ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has recovered over Rs5.4 billion from 0.2 million tax dodgers, said a report.
The report showed performance of FBR’s Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) for the period July 2013 – June 2017 and revealed that the tax authorities issued over 0.5 million notices during the period.
Around 40 percent or over 0.2 million of people filed income tax returns on receipt of notices. The FBR received Rs5.4 billion with returns.
The report said that expansion of tax base was remained a cause of concern for tax authorities in Pakistan as well as our international development partners.
In order to address this problem the initiative BTB was taken up in the year 2013-2014.
It was decided to create a centralized system of information collection, dissemination and monitoring.
For this purpose, a BTB cell comprising FBR officers and IT professionals from PRAL was created at the FBR (HQ).
A Centralized authority of Commissioner (CIR)–BTB (HQ) was created in FBR.
Data of financial transactions was collected from different sources i.e. Motor Vehicle Registration Authorities, Car Manufacturing Companies, Electricity Supplying Companies, Gas Distribution Companies, Capital Development Authority, Lahore Development Authority, Defense Housing Authority, Telecommunication Companies, organizations that register professionals like doctors, engineers, architects etc.
Furthermore, additional data from High Court Bars, Pakistan Bar Council, Insurance Companies was also obtained, the FBR added.
Moreover, the withholding statements filed by the withholding agents were also utilized to identify persons not on tax roll.
During the years 2013-2014 to 2015-2016, against the target of 300,000 notices FBR issued 465,165 notices and enforced 132, 505 income tax returns.
As a result of these efforts the number of income tax return filers which was around 0.8 million for the tax year 2012 has exceeded to 1.246 million in the tax year 2016 and would further increase in coming years.
The fiscal year 2016-2017, in respect of BTB efforts, has also been very good in particular as 0.213 million notices were issued and 0.145 returns were enforced, the FBR said.
