ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Federal Board of Revenue chairman Ahmad Waqar has asked sales tax officials to follow a compliance module to ensure enforcement and services to the taxpayers.

Addressing the Collectors’ Conference organised here on Saturday, the chairman also called for concerted efforts for the compliance and facilitation of taxpayers.

“There should be transparent deterrence against wilful defaulters and this would be the sole criterion of judging the performance of sales tax officers,” he said.

The chairman appreciated tax gap analysis and directed that IT-based automated system would be made operational in all regional tax offices and large taxpayer units.

Member Sales Tax and Federal Excise Abdul Wadood Khan stated that the target of sales tax had not only been surpassed but with collected sales tax and FED, the board had been able to fill the gap due to comparatively lesser collection on the direct taxes side.

The member urged the field formations to actively pursue alternate dispute resolution cases (ADRC) and advised the collectors to make concerted efforts in pursuing cases in superior courts of law.

The member sales tax and member income tax agreed on mutual sharing of data by both the direct and indirect taxes and field formations.

In this regard, a committee of ST and DT officers had been constituted which would integrate information on the inter-tax adjustment, recovery of arrears and statement of refund claims.

Shafqat Mahmood, Collector RTO Lahore, gave presentation on tax gap analysis in different countries. He also gave a detailed presentation on sales tax gap in different sectors. Through empirical data, he showed that the quantum of gap was quite serious.

The FBR chairman appreciated the efforts and ordered the system to be deployed in all the RTOs. For this purpose, the board shall design Special Operating Procedure (SOP) specifying the role of each officer conducting scrutiny of the cases where gap is apparently significant.

He instructed the CEO of Pakistan Revenue Automation Ltd (PRAL) to make the resources available to the collector, and make the system operational within 15 days.

The chairman also expressed concern over accumulation of sales tax refunds and different complaints regarding deliberate delay in disposal of refunds. He directed that the bona fide claims be disposed of expeditiously and in a transparent manner.

The chairman also constituted a committee headed by Nisar Muhammad, Chief (ST-II), FBR and comprising Collector, RTO, Lahore and Collector (Enforcement), Karachi for finding practicable measures to get liquidated the refund claims. This committee would examine the quantum and irritants of pending refunds claims.

Sikandar Ahmad Rai, Director General (Intelligence and Investigation) gave a number of different proposals for systematic audit enforcement received for plugging the leakages.