ISLAMABAD: The slow pace of recovery of sales tax and federal excise duty arrears by about 21 Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) has drawn attention of the Federal Board of Revenue and the board has directed the high-ups concerned to speed up recovery.
It is to be noted that 21 LTUs and RTOs could recovered only Rs468 million arrears in just 174 cases.
As per details, the FBR Enforcement and Withholding Wing has carried out a detailed analysis of recovery of sales tax/FED arrears in 2013-14, pinpointing poor recovery performance. It is surprising to note that sales tax and excise arrears were recovered only in 174 cases during the corresponding period.
According to the analysis the FBR Enforcement and Withholding Wing has consolidated position of arrears recovery monthly performance report on Sales Tax and Federal Excise for February, 2014. Results shows an almost standstill position in arrears recovery as evident from the figures. The data of sales tax arrears in February 2014 revealed that opening balance of arrears was 12,542 cases involving Rs100,545 million; arrears added during the month in 227 cases Rs4,085 million; arrears set aside/vacated in 249 cases Rs2,220 million; arrears recovered 174 cases, Rs 468 million; arrears written off 18 cases, Rs1,484 million and balance arrears recoverable stood at Rs100,457 million in 12,328 cases.
The data of federal excise arrears in February 2014 revealed that opening balance of arrears was 264 cases involving Rs 48,207 million; arrears added during the month 59 cases, Rs 4,299 million; arrears set aside/vacated 17 cases, Rs 112 million; arrears recovered (not declared) cases, Rs 27 million; arrears written off zero cases, Rs zero million and balance arrears of federal excise recoverable are 306 cases involving Rs 53,367 million.
The analysis revealed that the country-wide recovery in only 174 cases for 21 LTU/RTOs is not encouraging. The average recovery per office is 5 cases whereas over 12,000 cases are recoverable. Similarly “Arrears added” also denotes ST assessments. This 286 (227 sales tax arrears added and 59 federal excise arrears added) gives national average assessments for 21 offices at 13 per office for February.
