LAHORE, Oct 27 (APP): Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) may consider extending the date of filing of returns to facilitate business community. The tex commissioner can facilitate individual cases under specific reasons.
The FBR has developed a strategy to lessen its physical interaction with business community and this strategy which also includes facilitating the filers and making it difficult for non-filers to easily use untaxed income. This paradigm shift has borne fruits for the department as only in RTO Lahore, 80,000 new filers were being added every year.
Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue Lahore Nasir Iqbal disclosed this to business community during a meeting here at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Thursday.
The Chief Commissioner was informed by LCCI President Kashif Anwar about the efforts being made by Lahore Chamber in requesting that all business people file their tax returns. The Chief Commissioner sought the help of LCCI in educating and informing the business people to be filers and said that human resource interaction with business community has been kept to a minimum and focus on digitization and documentation with the aim of improving the business environment.
The Chief Commissioner said that revenue of FBR increased many folds in the last ten years from Rs. 1,000 billion in 2008 to Rs 3,800 billion in 2015 and it was expected to grow to Rs. 7,450 in tax year 2023.
He said that unnecessary notices had also been stopped. “We were asked to survey the markets to find out the good businesses that are out of tax net but we did not go for it as that we are committed not to spread panic among the business community,” he maintained.
He said that last year 588,000 tax returns were filed in RTO Lahore. Every year around 80,000 new taxpayers were being added to the system. He said that instead of dragging those who were out of the tax net, the department was minimizing the use of their untaxed and illegal capital. He said that the tax rate and treatment for the non-taxpayers was different. He said the property tax rate for the taxpayers was two percent which was adjustable while rate for non-taxpayers was 7.5 percent.
LCCI President Kashif Anwar urged the RTO to appoint a focal person. He mentioned the recently issued simplified income tax return form through SRO 1955(I)/2022 for small retailers and shopkeeper having an annual turnover of less than Rs. 10 million. He said that since the Sales Tax applicable on the turnover of above Rs 100 million, why was this simplified form not accommodating the small retailer whose turnover was between Rs 10 million and 100 million?. In this context, he recommended that the limit of Rs. 10 million needed to be increased to Rs. 100 million so that more small retailers could benefit from this simplified form which would help increase the tax base.
The LCCI President said, according to the data, around 80 percent of the FBR’s tax revenue claims were pending at internal forums of the tax collection body such as the commissioner’s appeal and appellate tribunals.
A total number of 90,500 tax cases involving Rs 3,500 billion were pending in different tax adjudication forums. The Alternate Dispute Resolution Committees should be restored on a more pro-active basis which was the need of the hour. The representatives of chambers of commerce should be included in the ADR Committees, he suggested.
He said that if a business had been closed down and wanted to get de-registered from Sales Tax/Income Tax, the concerned representatives of private sector had to face great difficulties and they were not properly informed if they had got their company de-registered. He demanded that the process of de-registration should be made simpler and quicker.
He said that in the case of exemptions filed for section 153 or 148, the deemed refunds should be allowed to be adjusted. Disallowing of the same shall result in a cash flow burden on the taxpayers which was undue. He said that appeal effect should be given to the cases where the judgment had been passed by the Appellate Authority in the favour of the taxpayer automatically.
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