KARACHI, Oct 23: The Regional Tax Office (RTO), Karachi, has received record number of tax returns and statements for the tax year 2007. The total number of returns filed up to October 20 was 663,956 as against 457,953 received last year registering an increase of 45 per cent.

After a further extension in last date from October 20 to 31st for filing tax returns the RTO expects to further improve upon the figure to lead other tax regions of the country.

Similarly, the RTO Karachi has made record increase in retail sector wherein 23,711 persons filed their statements up to October 20, as compared to 14,279 statements received last year, thereby showing a rise of 66 per cent.

It had conducted a study for tracing potential taxpayers based on available data. It was ascertained that within two years the tax population of the city could be enhanced from 0.458 million to one million.

The on-going reforms of the CBR and introduction of Universal Self Assessment Scheme (USAS) have not only doubled tax revenue during last few years but also resulted in large share of direct taxes in the overall revenue pool. The achievement of the budgetary targets of last two years shows that the reforms are a step in the right direction.

However, the CBR has to do a lot to improve tax-to-GDP ratio because presently, hardly one per cent or 1.7 million of the total population of 160 million pay tax.

The regional tax offices are also strictly monitoring withholding tax in the hope to achieve the goal of adding 0.5 million more taxpayers in next two years.