ISLAMABAD: Government aims to broaden the tax base by bringing at least 100,000 new taxpayers into the tax net during next three fiscal years.
This was stated by Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan while informing the National Assembly that the government had issued notices to 63,801 potential taxpayers urging them to file their returns during the first quarter of the financial year. While a total of 30,891 notices were issued during the second quarter. More than 3,000 persons have got themselves registered voluntarily and more than 3,500 persons have filed returns in response to the notices served to them.
He informed the House that the data collected about potential taxpayers through third party sources includes motor vehicle registration, real estate purchase, educational institution fees, utility bills, sales tax invoices and withholding tax payments. He also said that the government is not satisfied with the progress but we are hopeful the situation will improve in the next two to three months.
To another question, the he said the government has so far issued 4,134 exemption certificates to importers and manufacturers during the current fiscal year, amounting to Rs 21.13 billion. He said the exemption certificates do not affect the budgetary estimates as such certificates are issued only if the advance tax liability for whole of the current fiscal year is discharged by the relevant taxpayers.
In this way, the payment of the tax liability for the current year is secured before the issuance of the exemption certificates, he said. The house was also informed that the present government has issued a total of 24 SROs under the Sales Tax Act, 1990 till date with expected positive revenue impact of Rs 13.6 billion.
Khan said that three SROs under the Federal Excise Act, 2005 have been issued involving expected positive revenue impact of Rs 0.5 billion. On the income tax side, 15 SROs were issued by the federal government/Federal Board of Revenue, he said. The revenue impact is involved in only 8 SROs as the remaining relate to devising rules or income tax returns, he said, adding that there is decrease in revenue of Rs 2.4 billion due to revision of rate of tax for goods transport vehicles.
