From Mehahill Rashid
FAISALABAD: Despite of some minor system related discrepancies, FBR have paid unprecedented refund claims to the tune of Rs. 250 billion during this year, said Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmad Member Inland Revenue (Operations). Addressing the business community in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) along Mr. Faiz Ullah Kamoka chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, he said that every patriotic citizen have to file his tax return in order to disassociate him from the tax evaders and FBR to extend maximum facilities to the responsible taxpayers. He appreciated the productive questioning session during this meeting and said that he will critically analyse the system in the light of suggestions and proposals presented from the different segments of the society. “It will also help Inland Revenue to understand the pros and cons of the system and introduce new and innovative measures to further improve it”, he added.
Regarding issuance of notices to the Information Technology (IT) sector, he clarified that it is the constitutional and legal responsibility of the tax collectors to ask about the taxable money and it should not be dubbed as harassment. He said that IT export is exempted but at the same time, the exporters are bound to file declaration and upon declaration, they could enjoy this exemption. Quoting American IT giant “Standards & Poors”, he said that its global business was around 40 billion dollars but it did not send even a single penny to Pakistan excluding the staff salaries. He said that we want to regulate this sector so that IT companies that are earning hefty profit could bring back foreign proceeds to Pakistan. Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmad expressed satisfaction our 18% extra revenue collection and said that it will help government to dole out batter facilities to the masses. However, if some individual has a problem, he could discuss it with the Chief Commissioner Regional Tax Office (RTO) Faisalabad. Regarding further tax, he said that it is the most ticklish issue and he is pondering on its impacts on the overall economy. “FBR will try to give maximum relief to the concerned persons, if it is deemed possible within the system”, he assured. He said that FBR is trying its optimum best to ensure speedy payment of refund claims but after it, the concerned processing officers have to face a tough audit. “However it is our well defined policy to pay refunds without any unnecessary delay and if any discrepancy was identified in a later phase, the responsible elements would be penalized in accordance with the law. He requested the trade bodies to help FBR to further improve the tax system so that tax evaders could be segregated from the law-abiding citizens and given a deterrent punishment. Continuing, he said that if FBR failed to net the black sheep, the current generous policy of the government could not be continued for a longer period.
About plugging loopholes of smuggling, Dr. Ashfaq Ahmad said that excellent work has been done in this connection by all concerned departments as they are working with commitment and unanimity. He said that smuggling through Iran and Afghanistan borders has been eliminated, however the real issue confronted by the FBR is the declaration of miss-invoicing. “Four hundred items are declared in an incoming container whereas actually it had more than 4000 items”, he said and added we could control this issue only through 100% inspection of the containers for which we need more financial resources.
