KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry president has said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had issued notices to 240,000 tax evaders and urged to share information on any progress in the efforts against tax evaders. Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra demanded in a statement that information about tax evaders must be publicised.
To enable progress on such cases to be effectively monitored, he added, it should be shared with the Chambers of Commerce in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta Peshawar and Rawalpindi. These steps will help in restoration of the confidence of regular taxpayers, he said. The statement was contained in a press release issued by the KCCI.
Vohra recalled that five years ago the FBR had claimed to have identified more than 700,000 tax evaders, giving the assurance that it would bring them into the tax net. But no real action was ever taken against the evaders, who do not even have NTNs (national tax numbers), he said.
Vohra said that while the FBR says it has issued notices to 240,000 tax dodgers, the number of case on which it shares details is just 513.
In addition, he said, in only 278 of the 513 have bank accounts been frozen, vehicles were impounded in 117 cases and properties attached for auction or sale in a mere 78 cases. And the number of those issued arrest warrants for tax crime is 40, he added.
