LAHORE: Trust-based working atmosphere at workplace helps achieve desired goals so the Regional Tax Office-II is following the practice in order to achieve revenue targets and facilitate taxpayers.
These were the comments of RTO-II Zone-VII Commissioner Sarmad Qureshi in an interview with Customs Today at his office. Highlighting the performance of his zone after holding the office of commissioner in February 2016, he said that the zone achieved all monthly revenue targets assigned by the RTO-II chief commissioner and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). He also hoped to achieve annual revenue target by the end of fiscal year 2015-16.
Since holding office until June 27, the zone collected Rs 303.755 million under the head of income tax, Rs 276.069 million as arrears, Rs 50.584 million as advance tax, while its gross collection stood at Rs 331.114 million, Sarmad said while sharing statistical data.
According to data, the zone showed an outstanding performance under the head of sales tax as it collected Rs 903.503 million during the said period. It also recovered Rs 38.803 million arrears on sales tax and generated Rs 65.01 million by stocktaking.
During the first 27 days of June 2016, the zone collected Rs 221 million as sales tax and Rs 30 million as income tax, he said, adding that a revenue of Rs 50 million in the wake of sales tax and Rs 50 million as income tax was expected in the remaining days of June.
The commissioner informed that he put special focus on stocktaking and physical verification of business points to check their stocks and sales in order to collect maximum tax after proper assessment.
The RTO-II has divided the jurisdictions in alphabetical order, he said, adding that the Zone-VII covered from ‘M to Z’, except ‘S’. He further said that 658 active companies fell under the jurisdiction, while no salaried or non-salaried person was included in the list.
He further added that a strict monitoring system has been maintained in order to remove the discrepancies. The officials remain in contact with the taxpayers by sending notices and making calls in order to push them to pay tax liabilities, he said.
Talking about audit cases, Sarmad Qureshi said that many taxpayers go into litigation against the department, which makes the tax collection process slow, adding that the ratio of litigation was low in stocktaking matters as compared to audit cases.
The Zone-VII has recovered all the arrears from the taxpayers during the said period, he said, adding that some cases of tax recovery were in courts. “The officials of the zone will implement the decision of the court in the cases as soon as possible.”
He said that the RTO-II has an efficient system to settle refund cases. In some refund cases, the taxpayers did not file the returns online timely or provide relevant documents to the department due to which the process became slow.
Talking about a high-profile case of Rs 700 million tax recovery from the Punjab Employees Security Institution (PESSI), he said that negotiations were being made with the officials concerned to settle the matter amicably.
For capacity building of the officials, training workshops were arranged by RTO-II Chief Commissioner Khawaja Adnan Zaheer where different issues of tax laws were discussed, he added.
Sarmad said that motivational training of all staff by the chief commissioner encouraged them to perform their duties diligently and honestly. He said that all sales tax and income tax matters were handled with coordination of Additional Commissioner Imtiaz Ahmad.
“FBR Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan, Inland Revenue-Operations Member Dr Muhammad Irshad and Chief Commissioner Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II) are professionals and have an extensive experience in the tax department,” he said, adding that the members of the board were also supporting RTOs in tax collection.
