Under-declarations of property: FBR to establish liaison with E&T departments to remove anomaly

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will establish liaison with provincial excise and taxation departments to remove a major anomaly on under-declarations of immovable property rates (registry documents) when compared with declared value in the wealth statements filed with FBR.
It is learnt that the issue of huge difference in property values declared with the provincial departments and FBR was discussed during the last meeting of Standing Committee of National Assembly of Finance headed by MNA Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh during his visit to Regional Tax Office (RTO) Karachi. The meeting held in RTO building, which was attended by all the members of the committee and five Chief Commissioners Inland Revenue, along with their Commissioners posted in Karachi.
On the issue of valuation of properties, the important finding regarding anomaly of the low property rates (according to registry documents) vis-à-vis the declared value in the wealth statement was thoroughly discussed. It was agreed upon that liaison with excise and taxation department will be established for reaching an agreeable solution on this and the standing committee also assured the officials of every possible help in vetting this proposal into a legal framework. The weaknesses regarding non-territorial base, weak prosecution and subsequent pendency were pointed out and assistance of the committee on these outstanding issues was sought. Proposal regarding access to readable memory (which cannot be tempered) of the banks accounts and bank data on withholding tax deduction was sought for the real-time monitoring for interdicting the slippages in revenue collection.
Syed Ayaz Mehmood, Chief Commissioner-IR, Large Taxpayers Unit, Karachi gave a presentation to the committee on performance of Inland Revenue Service Karachi. The Chief Commissioner, Large Taxpayers Unit, Karachi, also prevailed on the purpose underpinned the establishment of Large Taxpayers Unit and brought to fore the special criterion set up for qualifying as taxpayers for LTUs. In the end of his presentation Syed Ayaz Mehmood presented SWOT analysis of Karachi Inland Revenue Service. The tone of the meeting was set by the worthy chair by involving the attendees in a discourse on the menace of corruption in public sector and the ways to wriggle out of it. After a detailed deliberation, the participants unanimously agreed that it was due to lack of implementation of accountability laws, which has resulted in corruption and subsequent decline in efficiency.
Nausheen Javed Amjad, Chief Commissioner-IR, LTU-II, Karachi, however, dwelt upon the strides made towards system of modernisation and technological improvisation. She further elaborated as to how provisions like e-notices and e-filing have brought about a considerable reduction in the possibility of manoeuvring and mala fide.