ISLAMABAD: As part of its efforts to broaden tax net, the Intelligence and Investigation Wing of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) compiled data of more than 40,000 people, possessing luxury vehicles in the price range of over Rs3 million each.
The step has been taken to identify potential tax evaders and bring them into the tax net across the country.
According to reports, the FBR’s I&I wing collected data of more than 2,753 people alone in Islamabad who are having luxury vehicles and never become part of the tax net.
It has been learnt that the Intelligence & Investigation has particularly focused those persons who have purchased luxury vehicles over the past three years.
It si to be noted that less than one percent of the total 180 million population of the country files income tax returns, although there a good number of people who earn dirty money live in posh localities, possess five to 10 luxury cars, rented plazas and houses , but do not bother to pay their due taxes.
According to Islamabad’s Excise Department data, which was obtained by the FBR, there are 2,753 owners who registered luxury vehicles having price range of over Rs3 million from /4/2011 to 3/12/2014.
According to estimates made by an I&I official, the owners of luxury cars in major cities including Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Sialkot, Quetta and other cities would be standing in the range of 40,000 to 50,000 at least. It is now the responsibility of the FBR to move after them to broaden the narrow tax base. The FBR is in the process of gathering data from all available avenues in order to detect potential and major tax evaders.
It is to be mention here that a few years back, under former chairman FBR Ali Arshad Hakim, the FBR had gathered the data of registered vehicles along with details of their owners on the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Balochistan’s law and order case and later the FBR had granted an amnesty scheme. Ultimately, this scheme had failed because of litigation but data on this account would be still be in the possession of FBR high-ups and this data could be used after updating it for the purpose of broadening of the tax base.
The FBR’s I&I Wing is in access of tax machinery’s existing data to verify whether owner of a vehicle is active taxpayer or he or she does not even exist among the list of taxpayers by not possessing the National Tax Number (NTN).
