ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) biggest documentation exercise of launching a new web portal for registering 3.5 million non-filers has been temporarily suspended due to the current political situation in the country.
Sources told that the government wanted to document 3.5 million non-filers of income tax returns through this new web portal using the tax profiles framed by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
The FBR has finalized all arrangements for launching the web portal for non-filers, but the exercise has been suspended for some time. Once the political situation is clear the portal would be launched under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance.
The whole exercise was supervised by the former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin who repeatedly said at different forums that the non-filers and those liable to pay taxes should immediately start paying their due share “before we approach them in the coming days, backed by authentic data,” to avoid legal action under the law.
In the past, the FBR had provided third-party data of 14 million people to NADRA. The authority has mixed its own data with the FBR’s third-party records and finally developed profiles of non-filers. NADRA has identified 3.5 million non-filers by applying three different methodologies using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
It is important to mention here that the NADRA’s tax profiling done in 2019 is still available on its website and people can view their profiles on payment of Rs 500. NADRA had launched the FBR’s Tax Profiling System in 2019 which can be still used by the non-filers of income tax returns. NADRA launched the tax profiles in 2019 when the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) launched the Maloomat Tax-Ray App.
Taxpayers and the general public can get information about their assets and withholding deductions through Maloomat Tax-Ray App. The 2nd Edition of the ‘IRIS’ portal ‘Maloomat’ (tax profiling system), contains data of 53 million citizens, giving access to the filers and non-filers to the information about their assets and bank accounts.
According to the 2019 FBR’s Tax Profiling System, it is a service offered by the Government of Pakistan to facilitate its citizens in understanding their responsibilities towards the payment of taxes. FBR Tax Profiling System allows the citizens to view their profile created by correlating their data from multiple data sources of assets, expenses, and lifestyles available with the Government of Pakistan. Non-tax filers are especially encouraged to view their tax profiles and become part of the tax system, NADRA’s message added.
The system has informed the non-filers that they may use this service if they are Pakistani nationals and hold a valid CNIC/NICOP, hold a PTA registered Mobile number (for citizens residing in Pakistan only), have an email address (for citizens residing outside Pakistan); have made payment of Rs. 500 either through e-sahulat or Credit/Debit Card and are above or 18 years of age.
Through this web portal, the FBR has informed that the non-filers can access Tax Profiling System from anywhere in the world through the internet. Any Pakistani National can view/download his/her Tax profile after a verification process. However, the non-filers must pay their taxes as per their income and the rules of the Government of Pakistan. The tax profile system only shows partial information which may or may not be a complete representation of your assets and financial activities.
The tax profile only shows partial information and may not contain all your declared and undeclared assets. It does not mean that FBR is unaware of your declared assets, NADRA added.
