Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has established Regional Sales Tax Monitoring Cell (RSTMC) to identify the cases involved in fake and flying invoices, fake transactions & sales suppression. According to details, the decision was made after witnessing decline in sales tax payments during first quarter of financial year 2019-20.
Keeping the said in view, a RSTMC under the supervision of Jafar Raza Kazmi, Commissioner IR, Zone-IV Karachi has been established in CRTO, Karachi in order to identify the cases involved in fake and flying invoices, fake transactions, sales suppression and streamline tax mechanism.
The cell will monitor monthly sales tax returns to identify cases where action under section 38 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 is required to be taken on the basis of abnormalities, causing huge decline in sales tax payment etc.. In addition, it will also prepare desk audit report, showing details of records/data scrutinised discrepancies observed and potential revenue involved.
The cell is also liable to take action under section 38 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 against the person as per law and submit detailed report with impact of revenue to the Chief Commissioner IR, CRO, Karachi.
Meanwhile, sources said that the cell was also advised to take action in specific cases under section 38 of the Act with reasonable interval of time and exercise should not be made frequently but it must be restricted to cases involving sizeable revenue leakage.
On the other hand, taxpayers are showing strong resentment over the establishment of RSTMC, saying that the officials nominated for this cell were not known for good reputation and feared that the cell would be used for harassing taxpayers.
Moreover, sources said that LTU-II had already started issuing notices under section 37 of the Act and now this new development would only widen trust deficit between taxpayers and taxmen.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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