March 04, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 25, 1429

KARACHI, March 3: The chairman, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Abdullah Yousuf, has stated that of the 25,000 registered corporate taxpayers only 14,000 have filed tax returns this year.“While around 4,600 paid some income tax, an equal number stated that they did no business, and the remaining have shown losses,” he said while speaking at the annual dinner of the Income Tax Bar Association Karachi (ITBA) here late on Saturday evening.

He further stated that although there were a total of 100,000 registered persons in the sales tax with the FBR, but of them only 21,000 were paying taxes.

He disclosed that 94 per cent of the total revenue collected on account of sales tax is paid by 1,351 persons only.

Mr Yousuf said there was a lot of potential, but the tax collecting machinery would also have to organise itself and use modern equipment to become efficient and transparent.

He was not only critical of taxpayers’ attitude, but also showed concern over performance of the tax collection machinery.

Despite the fact that the reforms agenda was initiated in 2001, “still we are deficient, and a lot has to be done towards efficiency, transparency, programming and systems,” he said, and stressed the need for a closer working between tax collectors and tax bars.

He said that the private sector would have to become more efficient, and advised them to forget about high tariff protected walls, quota regimes and bonus voucher schemes of the yesteryears.

Mr Abdullah Yousuf said that under the reforms agenda initiated in 2001, many administrative steps had been taken for creating a transparent and efficient system.

The first Large Taxpayers Unit stared work in 2002 as a pilot project in Karachi, followed by another one in Lahore, and the third is coming up in Islamabad, he informed.

Of the 13 planned Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) in major cities, half of them are on the ground while the rest would be made operational in the next two to three months.

Under the reforms agenda, he said that the FBR had moved to self-assessment system from the assessment-based system.

He disclosed that last year there was 100 per cent e-filing by the corporate sector and it shows how we are moving towards automation, and urged the tax advisers and consultants to work as intermediaries between tax collectors and taxpayers.

Responding to the points raised by ITBA President Munawar Sheikh, he said that audit of some tax returns was essential because FBR does not want to go back to assessment-based system.

He, however, assured that total transparency would be maintained in the audit and in case of any wrongdoing the bar could approach him directly.

He disclosed that there would be no need for individuals to get the National Tax Number (NTN) in future, but CNICs would be enough.

He assured that the period for sales tax registration would be reduced to weeks from three to four months.

The FBR chairman said presently there were no pending refund cases as the entire backlog had been cleared.

“By and large, there are no issues in the income tax, but the FBR will look into the sales tax where some backlogs occur due to intricacies.”