LAHORE: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance denounced the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) highhandedness against taxpayers, who have been served with notices having value that is many times more than their annual sales amid a sharp surge in tax demand to Rs2.4 trillion.
“I was shocked to see that the FBR issued a tax recovery notice of Rs65 million in a case where the total turnover of the person was Rs5 million per annum,” said Senator Talha Mehmood, Chairman of the Standing Committee.
The officers who issued such ridiculous notices should be handcuffed since the FBR was blackmailing the taxpayers through audit notices, said Mehmood.
The FBR has been serving tax notices despite Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin’s order to stop giving notices.
The development came amid increasing fear among the business community over the budget proposals to arrest the taxpayers on suspicion of concealment of income and link the relief with payment of 100% of tax demand.
FBR sources said that tax demand had jumped to Rs2.4 trillion, which was almost half of the FBR’s annual tax target of Rs4.963 trillion. Just two months ago, the figure was Rs1.7 trillion, showed the Ministry of Finance monthly economic update.
