ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has directed all commissioners of income tax to issue notices to non-filers of income tax returns for the tax year 2004 across the country to increase the tax-base.

An official in the CBR told Dawn that all commissioners had been directed to detect the non-filers of the tax returns this year and issue notices to them at the earliest for filing returns with the income tax department.

The CBR has projected a target of 1.2 to 1.3 million tax returns to be received for the tax year 2004. The total number of national tax numbers (NTNs) issued to taxpayers stood at 2.3 million.

While the tax returns filed by the taxpayers with the income tax department this year stood at more than one million, which remained behind the target.

According to the official, the tax officials had also started converting the data received through the returns forms into the computer system for making further analysis.