ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) nears the achievement of target bringing new taxpayers in the tax net for the current fiscal year. Till now FBR) has brought over 90, 000 new taxpayers in the tax net in last eleven years of the current fiscal year. In a bid to expand and broaden the tax base, FBR had fixed target of bringing 103,910 new taxpayers for the current fiscal year.
“Now FBR has to add only 13,910 new taxpayers in May and it is not a hard nut to crack; therefore, FBR will very likely to achieve the target as it has been achieving the revenue collection target in recent years” a well placed official source at FBR told Customs Today.
The source added that FBR has been perusing various methods and mechanism from 2013 for the broadening of tax base and various policy and other measures have been taken during last 3-4 years. For the said purpose, initially a separate Directorate for Broadening of Tax Base was established and later separate wing, headed by Member (Broadening of Tax Base).
The source added that in view of importance of the broadening of tax base, a fresh initiative to expand the tax net was launched by the government in FY 2013-14. This exercise made use of data relating to quantifiable economic activities of significant value that are indicative of significant asset creation or consumption, expenditure by persons not on tax roll.
For this purpose, FBR created a National Data Warehouse” the source added that data bank of 5.6 million financial transactions was developed on the basis of third party information. Based on the said information, 465,165 notices to non NTN holders have been issued since the initiation of project in 2013. As a result, 132,505 Income Tax Returns have been enforced, along with tax amounting to Rs1,769 million.
Besides, the source said that a number of new policy measures had been introduced through which cost of doing business was increased for non-filers of Income Tax returns. Different withholding tax rates were prescribed for Income Tax return filers and non-filers. Higher tax rates were introduced for non-filers of IT returns on different transactions to compel them to file their tax returns.
“These transactions include all bank transfers, sale and purchase of immovable property, purchase, registration and transfer of ownership of motor vehicle, cash withdrawal from banks and payment of profit on debt and dividend income, etc” the source maintained.
These policy measures have been introduced through Finance Acts of last three years” the source added saying that various stakeholders had been requested to put forward further policy proposals in this area for the budget exercise 2017-18,
