LAHORE: Hundreds of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officers are non-filers and haven’t filed their tax returns for tax years 2021, 2022, and 2023.
A few have submitted tax returns for one year but didn’t file their annual statutory income tax and asset declarations for two more years. Meanwhile, others haven’t filed returns for the current tax year by the already extended 30 October deadline.
FBR Chairman Amjad Zubair Tiwana said all FBR officers who had failed to file tax returns would be notified by Saturday. He added that most of these non-filers received extensions to file returns which expired on Thursday. He said they are now subject to disciplinary measures such as disconnection of utility connections.
An FBR officer said almost 2,600 out of 3,200 employees of the tax regulator in the 17-22 grades had filed tax returns for the current year. But hundreds of hundreds of personnel had failed to complete their yearly income tax returns and wealth declarations.
It bears mentioning that the FBR Chairman on Wednesday informed the Senate Committee on Finance that it was going to suspend non-filers’ mobile SIM cards and utility connections.
Unfortunately, the tax regulator has failed to use such powers against its own staff. Instead of prosecution, FBR has asked field formations to recover the penalty from non-filers’ pay after December 31st. Interestingly, non-filers’ service-related benefits were canceled at one tax office, but still active in the remaining 25 FBR offices.
