LAHORE: Hectic efforts are being made to achieve the 20 percent growth in the tax revenue collection set for running fiscal year 2015-16, besides broadening the tax net.
This was stated by Federal Board of Revenue Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II), Lahore Chief Commissioner Khawaja Adnan Zaheer while talking to Customs Today during an interview.
Sharing performance of the RTO-II, Zaheer said overall 20 percent growth has been recorded in revenue collection, adding that the growth in wake of sales tax was stood at more than 20 percent. He further said, “RTO is also focusing on achieving the 20 percent growth under the head of withholding tax (WHT) by the end of the fiscal year”.
Earlier, the taxpayers paid visit to the tax offices to file their tax returns, the chief commissioner said, adding, “Now the situation is changed, as tax officials have to visit the business places to monitor their activities and stocks in order to recover actual amount of taxes”.
He informed that RTO-II conducted audit of 1500 withholding agents and issued notices in 650 cases, which helped in recovering Rs 564 million during current tax year.
He further said that ten Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs) fell under the jurisdiction of the RTO-II that include Renala Khurd, Dipalpur, Okara, Pattoki, Chunian, Kasur, Gulberg Town, Iqbal Town, Samanabad Town and Nishter Town. He said that tax officials visited the TMAs on a routine basis to recover the taxes, adding that RTO-II has recovered Rs 75 million as WHT from the towns during the year.
On the directions of the FBR, a special focus has been put on the collection of withholding tax in order to meet the revenue targets, he said, adding that refunds were being issued to the taxpayers after proper scrutiny.
In order to recover stuck up amount of taxes, the FBR has moved different courts, tribunals and Inland Revenue (IR) Appeals to decide the cases on early basis. The RTO-II was also trying to recovery huge amount of taxes from taxpayers during the last month of running fiscal year.
Highlighting the technical developments within the tax system, he said that the FBR introduced latest technologies and automated systems to surmount the tax frauds. It also introduced CREST and other programmes to bring ease in tax system. He said that new module of sales tax registration also helped expediting the registration process.
Discussing about tax frauds and international tax system, he gave an example of US where a tax fraudster was sentenced 25 years imprisonment. He added, “We are also trying to implement strict punishment laws to overcome the tax evasion in Pakistan”.
The RTO-II made 88 cases under Section 40B and recovered Rs 151 million from the defaulters during the year, he revealed. He said that the field formation was mainly focusing on corporate advance tax cases, non-corporate advance tax cases, cases before courts, sales tax & withholding tax cases, revenue yielding audit cases and some others.
Informing about tax population by status, the chief said that the RTO-II collected 1.46 percent taxes from companies, 2.37 percent from AOPs, 61.74 percent from salaried persons and 34.43 percent from other individuals. “It is a difficult tax to recover tax from salaried persons as compare to the companies,” he said.
He said that trust-based working atmosphere was a key to success. For capacity building of the officials and officers, training workshop were arranged to discuss different issues of tax laws, he added.
Furthermore, cash rewards were also given to the officers and officials every month on showing the best performance, which encourage them to show high-level performance with honesty.
He also mentioned, “FBR Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan is a professional as he has 35-year long experience in the tax department,” adding that the members of the board were also supporting to the RTO-II.
“Special Advisor to Prime Minster on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan is also a professional man who always encourages tax officers to perform their duties honestly,” he said.
