FAISALABAD: Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue (IR) FBR Faisalabad Zubair Bilal said on Wednesday the FBR had expedited efforts to broaden tax base by utilizing data of 30 major departments and banks. Addressing a meeting of business community in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI), he said that in the first phase, notices would be issued only to the individuals executing big transactions which would ultimately convince other potential taxpayers to join the tax net. He said there was a trust deficit between the taxpayers and the tax collectors which could be dispelled by promoting reliable and friendly linkages.
He acknowledged the importance of taxpayers and said that they were actually partners in national uplift and we must remove their apprehensions so that they could enter into the tax net with their own sweet will.
About trust deficit, he said that its root cause was lack of transparency and accountability. “Every Muslim fulfills his religious obligation of Zakat by calculating and paying it in-time without any coercion as he has confidence that this amount would be utilized judiciously. “On the other hand, while paying tax, he feels pain as he has suspicions about the spending of his hard earned tax money”, he added.
He said: “Tax evaders are also part of our society and we must convince them to fulfill this national obligation with full responsibility and thus play their role in the national uplift”. He said that technology would be used to pick the richer sections of the society still out of the tax net.
He said that prospective taxpayers might file their return under self-assessment scheme and his declared income would be accepted without raising any objection. He said the FBR was fully cognizant of the unprecedented price hike and notice would not be issued to the individuals with income of less than one million and this practice was operational all over the country.
Zubair Bilal said that tax was actually a by-product of businesses as people paid just a peanut from their income to be re-spent on have-nots by the government. He said that in the prevailing trust deficit, it was very difficult to broaden the tax base but we were doling out 99 per cent facilitation and only harsh steps were taken in case of 1 per cent.
Responding to a question about the recovery targets, he said that there was no scientific formula to calculate it and generally these were based on estimates only. About separate recovery targets for the new filers, he said that there might be a rush of buyers in a shop but there was hell of difference in his returns. “Its reason may be that he preferred tax evasion instead of tax planning”, he said and added that 90 percent tax was paid by the banks and ten other major corporations.
Commenting on the payment of refunds, he said that during this month Faisalabad Tax Office (FTO) paid refunds to the tune of Rs 4.5 billion while during this period our recoveries were almost half of it.
About super tax, he said that a case was pending with the court, however he would clear the refund of advance taxes liberally. He disclosed that last year FTO had received 110,000 returns but this year its numbers had jumped to 135,000 showing a satisfactory increase of 20 percent. Out of these numbers,
40,000 were new filers, he added.
Earlier, FCCI President Dr Khurram Tariq addressed the meeting. Later, he presented FCCI shield to the Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue (IR) FBR Faisalabad Zubair Bilal.