ISLAMABAD: All national tax number holders who have not filed their income tax returns for Tax Year 2013 are to be served notices by the Federal Board of Revenue. Regional Tax Offices all over the country have been issued instructions in this regard. It is a legal requirement for every NTN holder to file his/her income tax return. Non-filer NTN holders will have to either file their returns or give reason otherwise.
Under section 114 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, different categories of taxpayers are liable to file income tax returns including persons who have obtained NTNs. Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) are directed to deal with the issue strictly. LTUs and RTOs are directed to enforce filing of income tax returns by each and every NTN holder. There is a huge gap between the NTN holders and actual return filers. This gap needs to be narrowed in order to generate revenue through payment of income tax by supposedly massive number of income tax evaders.
If the FBR is able to enforce filing of returns by all NTN holders, the number of income tax evaders may touch 100,000. There has been a revenue shortfall of over Rs 100 billion in the eight months of the current fiscal year despite 17 per cent increase as compared to the previous fiscal year since the set target for revenue collection was over one-fourth more than that of previously achieved revenue.
