KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has squeezed the net around marriage halls in Karachi over evading billions of rupees in terms of taxes during the past four years.
According to a report prepared by the FBR’s Intelligence and Investigations Directorate, the marriage halls in posh areas of the city evaded a total of Rs9.46 billion in taxes.
It said that at least 660 first category marriage halls have received taxes from the organizers but never paid it to the authorities.
The tax authority said that notices were issued to the marriage halls and a real time monitoring of the events held in their premises is being carried out. The FBR said that now the owners are directed to submit a one month prior record of their events.
It is pertinent to mention here that the marriage halls are bound to pay five percent of the amount charged for their place to the tax authorities.
The FBR said that the halls have only submitted taxes of upto Rs 41 million during the past four years with some of them reporting that not even a single event was held at their premises.
On the other hand, some of the top marriage halls in the city had only submitted a tax of upto Rs 10,000 during the past four years.
On February 20, the FBR has issued notices to as many as 24 dress designers that have been found to be underreporting or concealing their income or sales to pay a paltry amount of sales tax.
The FBR said dress designers earn millions by making apparels but paid a meager amount of tax.
The tax body detected anomalies in financial records of these 24 apparel makers, saying they declared income which doesn’t commensurate with their receipts.
