ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Tariq Bajwa has said that out of 56,000 land transactions in Karachi, 28,000 have been carried out by non-taxpayers, reflecting the level of undocumented property transactions. Replying questions posed by members of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, the FBR chief said that 56,000 land transactions had been carried out in Karachi, of which half had been made by taxpayers and half by the non-taxpayers.
A total of 28,000 land transactions had been carried out by the non-taxpayers in the mega city. Similar trend had been witnessed in other cities like Lahore and Faisalabad. The FBR has also obtained data of property transactions from Capital Development Authority (CDA). He said that the board had asked the CDA to separate self-occupied and rental data which would be matched with the FBR’s database.
The FBR is in constant discussions with Nadra for generating an actionable data based on tax profiles available with the authority. The FBR chairman said that he had meetings with Nadra and seen tax profiles compiled by the authority. For the documentation of economy, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla informed the committee that the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill 2012 was still lying pending with the Parliament. The proposed Bill empowers the authorities concerned to block the CNICs of the un-documented persons till filing of their income tax returns and start operating under the tax net. It is an effective way to ensure tax compliance by the un-registered persons.
Mandviwalla said that the bill had proposed powers to banks and Nadra to document unregistered individuals by issuing National Tax Numbers (NTNs) to them and accepting declaration/registration tax under proposed schemes.
On the occasion, the FBR chief disclosed that the FBR had tasked DG Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue with bringing unregistered persons having high income into the tax net. The directorate had obtained the list of dealers of luxurious vehicles for brining the owners of such expensive cars into the tax net. Action was being initiated against 500 persons under the said exercise, he added.
