It is a welcoming step of democratically elected PML (N) led regime that it allows FBR to publish national tax directory of all taxpayers second time in recent history of the country till March 31, 2014.
In the wake of dwindling tax-to-GDP ratio and narrowed tax base, now the time has come when precedent will set from top of the country as the government will publish tax directory of parliamentarians at first stage and then it will publish tax details of all taxpayers after pause of one and a half month.
Earlier, the government had also granted permission to the country’s tax managers to publish tax directory of parliamentarians till mid of the next month. Going one step ahead, now the government also took a very positive decision to publish national tax directory of about 0.7 million taxpayers by March 31, 2014.
In the recent known history of FBR, the tax authorities had published tax directory during the era of caretaker Prime Minister Moeen Qureshi but afterwards it was considered as no-go area by different political as well as dictatorial regimes to abandon this practice by using different excuses.
For instance, an excuse was always presented against the demand of publishing tax directory that the tax laws do not permit FBR to do so. On the name of secrecy, it was forbidden for the public to get information about the payment of taxes of whom they elected to rule over them without knowing that how much they were contributing to the national kitty.
The tax frauds in the western world is considered as the most heinous crime that could result into loosing important portfolio but in Pakistan it was never considered as major crime in recent history.
With major contribution of the media, the payment of taxes has now become important topic of debate in this country. Now it is imperative for both political leaders as well as other segments of the society to ascertain by sharing information how much they are contributing to national kitty by paying their due tax and liabilities.
The publishing of tax directory will enable the nation to get information of taxes being paid by the ruling elite. It would also apprise the masses about payment of taxes by all influential segments of the society.
In a country of more than 180 million population, the number of return filers is dismally low as only 0.7 million are discharging their national duty. Even less than one percent of the population are return filers so in this scenario there is need to penalize as well as appreciate on the basis of contribution one is making for paying his or her due taxes.
According to FBR’s own data, there are more than 3.5 million National Tax Number (NTN) holders in the country of which only 0.7 million filed their returns indicating that around 2.8 million NTN holders are falling into category of non-filers. Now FBR is considering sending them notices and giving them deadline of one month to file their returns or face the music of ex-party assessment after exhausting all legal procedures and requirements.
