Daily Times

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has initiated a countrywide crackdown against unregistered manufacturing units, sources in the bureau said on Friday.

In this connection, a team from Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) Zone, RTO-II, Karachi, on the directions of Shazia Memon, the commissioner Inland Revenue of BTB, has paid a surprise visit to various manufacturing units in F.B Area Industrial Area on Thursday.

The team visited biscuit manufacturing units, garment factories, embroidery designing units and dye makers, and record of a unit was confiscated when the team found sales information missing.

A team from BTB Zone of RTO II Karachi visited several manufacturing units in F.B Area Industrial Area under Section 38 of the Sales Tax Act 1990.

There is widespread perception among experts and market observers that the number of unregistered small manufacturers is increasing day by day. Against this backdrop, the FBR has initiated the drive to bring these units into the tax net to overcome the loss to national exchequer.

According to sources in the bureau, the purpose of the visits is to ascertain the actual quantum of sales of these units and compulsorily register businesses with Sales Tax numbers.

The specialised teams of the FBR would conduct a major operation against unregistered manufacturing units across country while the BTB zone of RTO II Karachi will speed up the drive against unregistered manufacturing units from next week in all industrial areas of Karachi, sources revealed.

The sources said that the BTB zone of RTO II Karachi may issue notices to the owners of unregistered manufacturing units asking them to register their businesses with the authority or face stern action, which might include sealing of their factories.

“The special task force has been formed to check unregistered manufacturing units across the city which would visit different industrial areas and scrutinise sales record and the teams may seize unregistered units.”

The FBR has established a special BTB Unit in Karachi to identify tax evaders in the commercial and financial hub of the country. The unit has been inaugurated by FBR chairman Tariq Mahmood Pasha in December 2017. The BTB units have been created under the special directives of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi across the country and FBR is taking all-out efforts to increase the tax net.

According to the FBR, the government has provisionally collected Rs2.26 trillion in revenue during the first eight months of the current fiscal year, representing 17.7 percent growth, but significantly short of the target.

From July through February of this fiscal year, the FBR recorded a provisional net revenue collection of over Rs2.259 trillion as against Rs1.920 trillion during the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Published in Daily Times, March 17^th 2018.