Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi has revealed that only 50,000 out of 100,000 companies registered with the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) file their tax returns. Zaidi made this revelation on Wednesday while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.
The FBR chairman said that the law binds every registered company to file its returns irrespective of their functionality or financial situation.
Shabbar said that he had apprised the SECP chairman of the fact and they will soon launch a crackdown against non-filers.
“I have spoken to SECP chairman, either he will remove the [defaulter] companies or I will,” Zaidi said.
The FBR chairman refuted the notion that he was going to amend the law related to freezing accounts of defaulters.
Zaidi said that he instructed a pre-approval from him and a 24-hour notice to the concerned party before freezing of an account.
He added that the decision was taken on complaints of several filers that FBR officials were bullying them and had frozen their accounts without any prior notice. He stressed that until the amnesty scheme lasts the FBR would try to go for voluntary compliance.
Shabbar said that he was in favor of voluntary compliances and will create a filer-friendly atmosphere to promote it. “I believe if the atmosphere is improved, voluntary compliance will increase.”
He said the revenue shortfall was quite massive this year and reducing it to nil in just two months was a tough ask.
“However we have introduced a special offer for non-filers in the Asset Declaration Scheme 2019,” he said, adding that everyone can clear their pending liabilities by filing just two percent of tax.
The offer is valid until June 30, Shabbar added, urging media to propagate it to the maximum people.
