LAHORE: Withholding tax contributed 90 percent in tax collection by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR,) Additional Commissioner Withholding Zone, Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II) Atif Bashir told Customs Today during an exclusive interview.
Additional commissioner Atif Bashir said that withholding zone of RTO-II Lahore collects taxes from all Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs), including Gulberg Town, Nishtar Town, Samanabad Town, Data Gunj Buksh Town, Shalamar Town, Wagha Town, Ravi Town, Aziz Bhatti Town and Allama Iqbal Town while some Hajj operators and travel agents also came in their jurisdictions.
He said that withholding zone of Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II) has recorded 21 percent growth as compared to previous year. He said during Financial Year 2014-15 this zone collected Rs24,023 million, during 2015-16 RTO-II collected Rs40,997 million up to June.
Additional Commissioner Atif Bashir said that the RTO-II focused on continuous stringent audit of withholding agents and ensured timely payment of taxes throughout the year. Such monitoring system yielded annual growth of 21% which is in line with national growth.
While answering to a question, he said that he always focus on huge recovery and use the formula of maximum results in minimum efforts. Withholding zone makes comparison of returns data and takes all measures under the law.
Additional Collector Atif Bashir said leadership qualities, confidence and motivation by Chief Commissioner RTO-II Khawaja Adnan Zaheer is them main reason that RTO showed outstanding performance.
Talking about the interest of taxpayers he said that in some cases withholding teams visits agents and recovers tax but in some cases taxpayers came in the office for the payment of tax liability.
Additional Commissioner told he always discussed important matters with seniors on daily basis and learns from their experiences.
He said that from last few years the taxation system has improved as well as the national economy also going better lines.
Atif Bashir said that the Chief Commissioner RTO-II introduced lot of new administrative measures in the Region according to policies of FBR. The Additional Commissioner also acknowledged the hard work of withholding zone officials as they put endless efforts in order to meet the assigned targets.
He informed that withholding zone conducted audit of withholding agents and issued notices in recovering tax during previous tax year.
On the directions of the FBR, a special focus has been put on the collection of withholding tax in order to meet the revenue targets, he said, adding that refunds were being issued to the taxpayers after proper scrutiny.
Highlighting the technical developments within the tax system, he said that the FBR introduced latest technologies and automated systems to detect tax frauds. FBR also introduced CREST and other programs to bring ease in tax system. He said that new module of sales tax registration also helped expediting the registration process.
Informing about tax population by status, the Additional Commissioner said that the RTO-II was collecting 1.46 percent taxes from companies, 2.37 percent from AOPs, 61.74 percent from salaried persons and 34.43 percent from other individuals but now after the separations of corporate and non corporate taxpayers some little changes has done.
He said that trust-based working atmosphere was a key to success. For capacity building of the officials and officers, training workshop were arranged to discuss different issues of tax laws, he added.
In response of final question Atif Bashir told that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Regional Tax Office (RTO-II) has assigned seven billion targets for the month of August and he trying to meet the target for the month.
