Daily Times

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial said that the Board was gearing up for a massive crackdown on tax evaders and non-filers anytime soon.

Speaking at a press conference, he claimed that the FBR had comprehensive data of those who had failed to file their tax returns.

Langrial, who was flanked by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, said the FBR had identified evidence of tax fraud in various sectors, including 11 battery sector cases, 897 iron and steel sector cases and 253 beneficiaries of fake input claims on coal purchases.

According to statistics, only 14pc of the 300,000 manufacturers have registered themselves and even many of them misreport turnover and use fake invoices.

He said there was a clear directive from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to adopt a strict stance on tax evasion.

The FBR chairman stated that there would be no category of non-filers from Oct 14. He said no one would be spared, including tax officers caught for evasion.

He said FBR’s automation company Pakistan Revenue Automation Ltd would be reformed. One of the possible measures would be international travel ban on non-filers in the coming months, he said. He said the violators would face arrest and imprisonment up to 10 years besides heavy penalties and fines.

He further said that providing incorrect sales tax data was a crime and under-filing of income tax returns remained a significant issue. The deadline for filing income tax returns was Oct 14 and it would not be extended, he made it clear.

To enhance the performance of the FBR, the chairman stated a plan had been devised to improve fieldwork capabilities of officers. He said expanding the tax net remained a top priority for the FBR.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb expressed the commitment to fight tax fraud and penalise those evading tax.

He said big companies were responsible for about half of the total tax evasions amounting to Rs3.4 trillion. He warned the chief financial officers (CFOs) of these companies against signing incorrect returns to avoid severe punishments.

He said the government was set to take action without discrimination and it had already arrested the owners of a footwear company involved in tax evasion.

He said the action was imperative because Pakistan could not achieve sustainable growth with a tax-to-GDP ratio of 9-10pc. The ratio should be about 13pc, he added.