LAHORE: Zahoor Khan Wazir, Assistant Commissioner, Zone-III, Regional Tax Office-II, said the utilization of tax money for the betterment of common man may be a step forward to a betterment of Pakistan’s economy. The people of Pakistan do not want to pay taxes as they think that our money wastes in corruption and is not properly utilized for the welfare of the people.
He said if government properly uses taxes for the betterment of the general masses then tax collection will go high and people will start paying taxes to the state with passion. In developed countries, taxation systems are much better but in Pakistan there are many flaws in the system which may be improved with little efforts.
Talking about the flaws in taxation system, Zahoor further said unfortunately the economy in Pakistan is undocumented, which is one of the main hurdles in proper collection of taxes. “Most people in Pakistan are not educated due to which they do not know the importance of tax collection and its use”, he added. He opined that common people’s perception is that once tax return is filed then we will be stuck up in a mess due to non-cooperative attitude of the department.
Assistant commissioner emphasized that tax matters are very complex so return filing is also difficult for a common man which makes the taxation system weak. In third world countries, the tax authorities are not stronger because people at the helm of affairs are corrupt and do not complain about taxpayers. By doing so, they weaken the tax authorities and the system for personal interests, thus pushing the country into deficit, he maintained.
Talking about the jurisdiction, Zahoor Wazir mentioned that currently he is collecting taxes from builders, developers, contractors and also working on an additional charge of lawyers, consultants, architects and engineers. He added that he collects taxes under the applied laws and mostly income tax law is applied to my both units of sales tax and federal excise duty law which is not applicable to builders, developers or lawyers.
He stressed that he does not work under pressure or with fear since I want to work for my country. Answering a question, Zahoor told Customs Today that he belongs to Waziristan and has joined Inland Revenue Service after qualifying CSS, which is really an honor for me.
With the efforts of the government and Pakistan Army, tribal areas are going to be changed with peace where education is also improving, he remarked.
He proudly said he collected taxes from the elite of this country under the laws and also recovered advance taxes from Aitzaz Ahsan, Shahzada Naeem Bokhari and Muhammad Akram Raja & Co. With the spirit of teamwork, he collected approximately Rs50 millions for both units in the month of March.
Mentioning about the taxpayers’ compliance rate, Zahoor thinks it differs from CRTO or LTU. In company cases, compliance rate is much better but as far as individual and AOP is concerned, compliance rate is not that much better. But still I believe that if notice is properly served then there are maximum chances that taxpayer will appear and sort out the issue.
He concluded by saying that serious steps should be taken to improve the economy, make it documented, streamline the taxation system and rampant corruption should be minimized if not totally eliminated.
