LAHOER: The Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II) will go the extra mile for generating maximum revenue and recovering pending arrears, besides broadening the tax net in order to strengthen the national economy.
Additional Commissioner Rabia Shah shared her aims during an interview with Customs Today, adding that expanding tax base is among top priorities of the RTO. Rabia is looking after the matters of Zone-IV. She further said that tax returns collection kiosks have been established on different locations of city.
Talking about assigned jurisdiction, she told that Zone-IV collects income and sales tax from the taxpayers of areas that include Data Gunj Buksh Town, Ravi Town and Shalimar Town. The zone collects taxes on all commercial activities i.e. paper and board, plastic, whole sellers, traders and medicine companies, marriage halls and feeds.
She informed that advance sales tax and income tax was also collected from taxpayers, adding that almost 40 thousands taxpayers came under the jurisdiction. “Recovery of arrears pending in the RTO-II and settling the recovery cases transferred by corporate tax office is also a priority of the RTO-II,” she said.
In order to curb tax evasion, the RTO was taking some drastic measures like stocktaking and monitoring the outlets of taxpayers, she said, adding that the zone ensured early collection of taxes in the cases sent by the Inland Revenue Intelligence and Investigation.
She further said that numbers of arrears cases were assigned to the RTO-II after the separation of corporate and non-corporate taxpayers. Through hardworking, motivation and experienced staff, the department has streamlined all record against defaulters who are not depositing taxes for many years, she revealed.
Rabia said that that Zone-IV properly monitored filers to watch negative trends and ensure stocktaking of non-filers to raise the tax collections. She said teams have been deputed at different outlets for checking of actual stock held by taxpayers, adding that and takes hard action against those where discrepancies found by the officers and officials.
“Generating revenue has not been a piece of cake, as it is not only Pakistan that faces difficulties in collection of taxes from public but also other developed countries like Germany, China, UK, USA etc. have to face hardships,” she said.
The RTO-II with the help of dedicated staff showed outstanding performance last years and exceeded its target, Rabia said. The department also ensured tax recovery from the companies and individuals whose names were sent by the audit officers after finding some discrepancies, she said.
She informed that zone-IV also checks that taxpayers were paying taxes as per rates, which have been prescribed by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). In some cases, taxpayers paid their taxes at lower rates causing loss to national exchequer, she informed, adding that at this stage the RTO took remedial measures.
Rabia said, ”Chief Commissioner Khawaja Adnan Zaheer holds workshops, seminars and training sessions for the training and education of the officers,” adding that Directorate of Training (DOT) also held meetings in RTO for the training of officers. She also said that Zone-IV Commissioner Ghulam Murtaza Bhatti is a dedicated professional and always guide the juniors on different departmental matters. She highlighted strong understanding between seniors and juniors proved good sign to enhance tax collection.
