ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: The Central Board of Revenue has selected as many as 22,147 income tax returns for audit, out of total 224,699 returns received this year under the Self Assessment Scheme (SAS).

Member, direct taxes, Vakil Ahmed Khan, said that in comparison to the last year selection of 49,378 returns for audit, this year it was reduced to almost half making it more user friendly.

The ballot to select cases for audit in pursuance of SAS was held at data processing centres at Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

This year the number of returns selected was smaller despite the fact that total returns received this year was more than last year, he added.

He said that about 1.5 million tax returns were filed by the taxpayers this year against 0.975 million, an increase of 53.8 per cent.

Mr Khan said the selection of smaller number of returns for audit this year was a consequence of the conscious policy of the government to facilitate more taxpayers under the SAS.

The Income Tax Ordinance 2001, made effective from July 1, 2002, provided for universal self assessment scheme, he said and added under this ordinance all returns filed would be accepted irrespective of the contents of the returns. Thus the present ballot and the scheme under which it was held would be the last one, the member added.

At Lahore, the balloting was attended by the representatives of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry; president, Lahore Income Tax Bar Association, Zulfiqar Khan; and vice-president of All Pakistan Income Tax Bar Association, Javed Iqbal.

The balloting at Rawalpindi was attended by president, Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Usman Khalid; president, Rawalpindi Income Tax Bar Association, Sheikh Muhammad Idrees; and representatives of various trade associations.

Representatives of the CBR, regional commissioners of income tax and zonal commissioners were also present at all the three stations, added the announcement.

Our Reporter from Karachi adds: Southern Region of Income Tax, Karachi, on Thursday held random ballot through computer and selected 3,622 cases of Self Assessment Scheme (2002-03) for audit.

In total 359,690 returns for the assessment year 2002-03 were received by the southern region and out of these 37,690 cases were of SAS which were put for random ballot.

As a result of the ballot 3,622 cases or 10 per cent of SAS will now undergo for total audit. Last year the region received 321,908 returns. Out of these 61,025 cases belonged to SAS and 10,828 cases or 17 per cent were selected for total audit.

The computer ballot was carried out at data processing centre of income tax department, Shahra-e-Kamal Attaturk.

Beside, business leaders a large number of tax officials were also present on the occasion. Senior vice president of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Muhammad Saleem Kapadia was chief guest.

Welcoming the participants, regional commissioner of Income Tax, Southern Region (RCIT), S.M. Athar said computer balloting was being held all over the country in accordance with the stipulation contained in the CBR circular No 7 of 2002.

He said that after excluding salary and property income cases, up to 20pc of returns could be selected for total audit through computer ballot which might be random or parametric.

He said last year such computer balloting under the then SAS was held on February 21, 2001, after a period of about five months from the last date of filing of returns. But this year, he said it had been ensured that the selection of the cases for audit should be made as early as possible after the last date of the receipt of returns, that is, October 15, 2002.

Mr Athar said this would provide sufficient time to the taxpayers to represent their cases for audit and for the tax collectors to complete the audit cases more adequately.

The RCIT commissioner informed the participants this is going to be the last balloting of this nature; because from next year i.e. 2003-04, the concept and approach of SAS has been changed under the new Income Tax Ordinance 2001.

He said under the new income tax ordinance all returns of income filed in tax year would, as such, be deemed to be the assessment orders. The fundamental and underlying concept is that the taxpayer himself has to determine his tax liability and discharge the same at the time of filing his returns, he added.

The new income tax law has brought a complete change in the philosophy of the income tax proceedings wherein all the income tax returns filed will be accepted without any precondition and there will be no requirement of compulsory enhancement of tax liability over previous year to qualify for acceptance, he maintained.

Athar said the new law and the universal self assessment scheme had taken away the discretionary powers of tax collectors and reposed tremendous confidence in taxpayers expecting them to declare the true particulars of their income.

Regional commissioner of corporate region, Shahid Jamal, winding up the proceedings, said maintenance of ledger account of each taxpayer had become compulsory for the success of new tax laws which gave a lot of liberty to taxpayers and reposed confidence upon them to declare true income.

Among the business representatives present were G.R. Arshad, Mushtaq Vohra and Khalid Amin. Income Tax Bar Association president Abdul Qadir Memon and other office-bearers also attended.