ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has devised a strategy to bring all armed forces personnel under tax net, after discussions with military authorities.
Head of Pay and Pension Administration (PPA) Directorate at the General Headquarters (GHQ), Major General Abid Ijaz, along with chief controller of military accounts, held a meeting with FBR Broadening to Tax Base (BTB) Director General Tanvir Malik, chief commissioner of Regional Taxpayer Office (RTO), Rawalpindi, and other members of the tax machinery during which it was expressed by the military that they would want to bring all their personnel under tax net.
The FBR, utilising army’s data, will install software in order to register all the unregistered personnel on the basis of their computerised national identity cards (CNICs). The tax authorities hope to find around 70,000 to 100,000 new taxpayers during the current fiscal year.
Major General Abid Ijaz also met the FBR Chairman Tariq Pasha for this purpose. The FBR assured the military that the army personnel will be duly facilitated in the process of filing tax returns. The military personnel will be divided into three categories, under the new rule. Personnel who are already registered and filing taxes will be included in the first category. Second catyegory will comprise those personnel who are registered, but not filing returns whereas the third category will comprise unregistered and non-filer personnel, who will then be brought under the tax net by the FBR.
Currently, salaries of around 125,000 army personnel are being taxed if their annual income crosses the exemption threshold of Rs400, 000. Total number of registered tax returns filers, at the FBR’s RTO Rawalpindi, stands at 65,000 to 70,000 on annual basis.
