FRIDAY MARCH 22: Election candidates: FBR to inform ECP about authenticity of income

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will inform Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) about authenticity of salary/business income, capital gains profits, agriculture income, foreign remittances and foreign/exempt income, etc, declared by the contesting candidates for elections-2013.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday that Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (Pral) has devised standard operating procedure (SOP) for the FBR to electronically verify sources of income declared by parliamentarians. The FBR has devised a special form for the ECP to provide summary of income tax returns for Tax Years 2012, 2011 and 2010 containing income declared and tax paid besides NTN/date of its issuance, etc. The SOP has been finalised in a meeting at the Pral office attended by all relevant tax officials to ensure timely verification of tax-related data of the contesting candidates.
On the basis of nomination papers filed by the contesting candidates, the FBR will verify details of salary income, business income, share from AOP, capital gains, other sources of income and foreign income. Exempted income includes: salary income, property income, business income, capital gains, agriculture income, foreign remittances and other sources of income.
According to the SOP, if National Tax Number (NTN) of the contesting candidates is not found in the Master Index of taxpayers, no tax information will be checked/provided either manually or by the system and certificate/letter will be generated by marking NTN as 'No NTN' through the system of FBR for uploading in the system of ECP. If NTN of the contesting candidates has been found the tax information will be checked in the system (e-portal & MAHASIL tax system). If compliance will be 100 percent, certificate/letter will be generated showing the relevant information, through the system of FBR for uploading in the system of ECP.
If there will be no compliance or portal compliance then the case will be processed in the light of SOP issued by FBR and afterward the information will be forwarded to ECP. The FBR's SOP said that the tax details available in the computer system of FBR will be generated for onward submission to Election Commission. Computerised National Identify Card Number (CNIC), name and father/husband name, as provided by the ECP, would be verified from National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). The NTN and date of NTN issuance of the contesting candidates would be verified from the Master Index of the FBR. The information will be provided for tax years 2010, 2011 and 2012 only.
The SOP said that the income declared by the contesting candidates would be sum of total income and exempt income. Total income would cover salary income, business income/loss, share from AOP (income/loss), capital gains/loss, other sources income/loss and foreign income/loss. Exempt income would cover salary income, property income, business income/loss, capital gains/loss, agriculture income, foreign remittances and other sources income.