Tax Evasion: Celcos Given Deadline to Pay Rs. 47 Billion

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has issued notices to five telecom operators to clear their pending tax dues with surcharge amount as determined by tax authorities that value around PKR 47 billion with-in three days to avoid any legal action under NAB Ordinance, reported Pakistan Today.

NAB, in its notice, has offered the telecom companies the option of Voluntary Return (VR) with-in specific time duration to avoid any consequences, otherwise, the notice said, the option of VR will no more be available and operators will have to Plea Bargain with all punitive measures under NAB Ordinance.

Furthermore, NAB, the apex anti-corruption bureau, has summoned five telecom companies for recording of their statements in the case on August .

It maybe recalled that cellular companies are fighting a tax dispute case worth PKR 47 billion, in which celcos believe that no tax was evaded, while Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) maintains that telecom operators have not paid taxes on interconnection revenues.

FBR was later requested by telecom operators to waive the old unpaid tax and that they would start paying taxes on interconnection revenues from July 1st, 2012 – on which NAB took suo motu notice and restricted FBR to retrieve entire pending tax amount from telecom operators.

Tax evasion issue was also discussed yesterday in a National Assembly’s standing committee on IT and Telecom. Express Tribune has more details on the meeting, which constituted a committee to probe the matter.