The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has directed all Regional Commissioners of Income Tax (RCITs) to take action against those withholding tax agents who failed to deposit the collected amount in the national kitty in time.
Sources said here on Sunday that CBR has issued a directive to all regional commissioners for immediate compliance to increase collection of withholding tax during 2004-05.
The CBR has directed RCITs that all withholding agents should be monitored by their respective Zonal Commissioners as it is the duty of the agents to collect/deduct tax at source.
Since allocation for Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) has increased considerably, the RCITs should ensure accurate collection of withholding tax through strict monitoring, the CBR added.
Sources said that the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 takes ample care for non-compliance of the provisions of law relating to withholding tax and filing of statements of tax collected and deducted.
The person responsible for collecting or deducting the tax at source as a withholding tax agent is personally liable to pay the amount of tax not collected or not deducted and payable/recoverable as if it is due under the Income Tax ordinance, 2001.
Similarly, the tax collected or deducted, if not paid, is also payable/recoverable as if it is due under the Income Tax ordinance, 2001 personally from the person responsible to collect or deduct the tax at source as withholding agent.
Sources said that the CBR is also devising new software for monitoring of withholding tax across the board. The new computer system would be helpful in enlisting and subsequently monitoring of all withholding agents operating in the country.
In this regard, a comprehensive report on withholding tax monitoring has been prepared under a committee headed by CBR Member Audit Pervaz Amjad.
The CBR has contacted Member Information Management System (IMS) for further processing of report to prepare software on withholding tax monitoring.
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