KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), during its recovery campaign of dues from the government departments, has recovered Rs 750 million worth of withholding tax from all six District Municipal Corporations (DMCs) pending since 2014-15 and frozen their 32 bank accounts.
In reaction, the said DMCs dumped tonnes of garbage in front of the FBR office located at Gulistan-e-Johar.
Regional Tax Office (RTO-III) Deputy Commissioner-IR Asif Abroh, while talking to media, condemned the act of DMCs and announced to take action against the municipal corporations as per laws. He revealed that the DMC authorities had further threatened to dump more garbage in front of the FBR office.
According to FBR sources, the Regional Tax Office (RTO-III) had taken up the issue in December 2015 and asked the DMCs to explain why they failed to collect 6 percent income tax on payments to contractors. However, none of the DMCs gave any response to the RTO-III, despite several reminders.
Consequently, the tax department raised a tax demand of Rs 950 million against all six DMCs and issued an order under section 161 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001 on March 22, 2016. Replying to a question, sources said although the order was appealable within 30 days, no DMCs bothered to take it seriously that led to the recovery of Rs 750 million through accounts’ attachment.
Meanwhile, officials in DMCs said the tax department had frozen the accounts of corporation at a time when the salaries of DMC workers were about to be released.
