As part of restructuring measures, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has established 145 District Tax Offices which will focus on bringing 1.5 to 2 million new taxpayers into the tax net till June 2024.
In order to achieve this target, the FBR has decided to cut the electricity and gas connections of non-filers as well as to block their mobile SIMs. The tax watchdog has started issuing notices to non-filers under Section 114B of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
The Prime Minister has also stressed the importance of revenue and increasing the existing number of tax filers during recent meetings.
FBR notified the establishment of these offices, a new initiative that will help broadening the tax base and ultimately raising tax-to-GDP ratio to a desired level.​These offices would be headed by District Tax Officers entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing Income Tax Returns from non-filers and stop filers.
The establishment of these offices heralds a new chapter that would expand tax net to fill a critical tax gap on the path to bring all potential taxpayers into the tax net. These new offices would be headed by dedicated Inland Revenue Officers in BS-17/18 which would obtain and utilize third party data acquired from multiple departments and agencies that hold critical information regarding investment in assets and incurring of huge expenditures by potential taxpayers who till now have managed to escape and stay away from the taxation system including registration and filing of tax returns.
Federal Government is committed to utilize all measures and provide assistance to FBR. A new Documentation Law is also being introduced to obligate various agencies/departments to provide data to Federal Board of Revenue through automated common transmission system. Collaboration and assistance from National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has also been sought. Chairman NADRA has assured Federal Board of Revenue for its assistance for widening of tax base through Data Integration.
The initiative would not only strengthen FBR capacity to enforce tax laws but will also facilitate taxpayers in filing tax returns by establishing dedicated offices.
Sounds very interesting but impractical.
The govt. would benefit from this initiative only when the process is automated, otherwise it would benefit the corrupt FBR staff
What would happen to the people who are living on rent? If their house owner is non-filer, they would suffer. So in short the govt. is converting tenants into withholding agents of sorts.
This is indeed an excellent point. Actually govt presented the idea during sleep without any pros and cons and practicality. Otherwise if they want to broaden the tax net they can start it from big wholesale markets where every month fbr officials rooming to warm up their pockets.