LAHORE: The business friendly environment to attract local as well as foreign direct investment is necessary in order to exploit potential of manufacturing sector. Only business friendly environment can streamline economy and create jobs.
This was stated by RTO-II Deputy Commissioner Husnain Ahmad Hali, Withholding Zone, while giving an exclusive interview to Customs Today.
He said currently tax collecting agencies at Samanabad Town and Allama Iqbal Town and Excise and Taxation Department fall in his jurisdiction. He deals with withholding agents and gets tax amount collected by them. He also conducts audit of agents and in case of any discrepancy he also recovers evaded amount of taxes.
Hali told Custom Today that 4,000 withholding agents belong to his jurisdiction and they are checked by him regularly. He stated that he collects taxes under Section 156 on prizes and winnings, 156A petroleum products, new vehicles and 234A Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) sector of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
Talking about tax collection, he added that he collected Rs 1081 million from prizes and winning up to April 2017. About Rs 1021 million was collected in the same period of time in Financial Year 2015-16. He further said he has collected Rs 0.93 million from the vehicle won by Emporium Mall customer.
He informed Customs Today that he collected Rs 892 million from petroleum products by April that is Rs 267 million more from previous year’s. He said he generated Rs 1791 million under New Vehicle Head as compared to Rs 1660 million in the last year. He also earned Rs 710 million under head of CNG up to April of Financial Year 2016-17.
Ahmad Hali performed his duties in the Regional Tax Office (RTO) Faisalabad and Multan, Corporate Regional Tax Office (CRTO) and now he is posted at Regional Tax Office-II Lahore. During his job at CRTO, he was declared “Officer of The Month” by Chief Commissioner on his extraordinary performance, he stressed. He added that the Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II) taught the withholding agents as a result of which huge collection is received so far.
The deputy commissioner said the RTO-II focuses on continuous strict audit of withholding agents and ensures timely payment of taxes throughout the year. Such monitoring system yielded annual growth of 21% which is in line with the national growth.
Hali emphasized that leadership qualities, confidence and motivation by Chief Commissioner RTO-II Khawaja Adnan Zaheer is the main reason that encouraged him and boosted his morale for showing outstanding performance.
The trust-based working atmosphere is a key to success, he maintained. For capacity building of the officials and officers, training workshops were arranged to discuss different issues of the tax laws, he informed.
In response to a final question, Husnain further said the Regional Tax Office (RTO-II) and Withholding Zone are working efficiently to meet targets allocated by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
