ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Chairman Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Abdullah Yousuf on Wednesday directed tax officers to penalise all those withholding agents not filing monthly statements with the income tax department.

Taking serious note of the non-filing of monthly statements by some of the withholding agents, the chairman asked the tax officers to ensure that no body was allowed to get away with the tax money he has collected on behalf of the CBR.

Chairing 12th income tax conference he directed that on reconciliation of data of taxpayers the income tax commissioners should go through the files of each and every taxpayer for verification of the data.

The conference was informed that net collections of direct taxes during July-December, 2006 reached at Rs170 billion as compared to Rs104 billion during the same period of last year.

On filing of returns, the conference was told that the total number of income tax returns received in first six months of current financial year were 15,45,952 as compared to 12,69,662 in the same period of last year showing an increase of 21.7 per cent.

While reviewing the staff and infrastructure position of different model units, the chairman directed the concerned officials to fulfil the genuine needs of all model units on priority basis. He specifically ordered for the supply of computers to the large taxpayer units (LTUs) as per their requirement.

Mr. Yusuf said that in future in all matters of regional tax offices (RTOs) the focal person will be the director general of the respective RTO and he will regularly send a report to the headquarters on the performance of the commissioners under his jurisdiction.

Member Direct Taxes Salman Nabi highlighted the overall achievements in direct taxes during the first half of the current fiscal year over the last year.

The conference was further informed that the tax collected with IT returns was Rs45 billion as compared to the last year’s Rs23 billion indicating a growth of 96 per cent. Similarly, total collection under advance tax up to December, 2006 was Rs59 billion as compared to Rs26 billion in the same period of the last year indicating a growth of 127 per cent.

The conference was informed that more than 62,449 cases involving an amount of Rs20 billion refunds were still pending with the income tax department. The Member was confident that all the pendency will be cleared in the next few months.