ISLAMABAD: M/s Telenor Pakistan (Private) Limited has provided the revised data to the Federal Board of Revenue. The FBR has started the audit of withholding tax on the basis of revised data provided by the M/S Telenor Pakistan.
According to Member Operation Inland Revenue FBR Khawaja Tanvir, the initial analysis suggested that the number of customers are 40,441,316 while transactions retaking to pre paid cards and easy loads for the month of July, 2017, are 98,064,970. The field officers concerned have already visited the company twice to cross check the data from the system used by the company.
In view of massive volume of the number of transactions, the exercise is expected to be completed in 10 to 12 weeks time. Federal Board of revenue has decided that the withholding tax audit of other telecom companies would also be carried out after taking into account the outcome and inference drawn from M/s Telenor Pakistan (Pvt) Limited.
Federal Board of Revenue will also hire services of professional auditors to examine the record of the telecom companies.
It is pertinent to mention here that there is perception about Federal Board of Revenue that FBR don’t have capacity of audit of withholding tax of telecom companies. FBR has rejected the claim and explained that there are some technical difficulties but it does not mean that FBR is unable to audit the withholding tax record of telecom companies. FBR has full capacity of withholding tax audit and to start up with Telenor Pakistan, withholding tax audit is clear example.
