Non-disputed direct taxes' arrears: FBR asks LTUs, RTOs to recover 50 percent by December 31

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has given deadline of December 31, 2010 to the Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) to recover 50 percent of the non-disputed direct taxes arrears involving huge amount of Rs 92.264 billion to meet revenue target during 2010-2011. In this connection, the FBR has issued instructions to the LTUs and RTOs here on Thursday.
Sources told Business Recorder that 50 percent of the non-disputed arrears stock amounting to Rs 92.264 billion on direct taxes must be recovered by December 31, 2010 to achieve the half-yearly revenue target. The recovery of Rs 92.264 billion would help the tax machinery to meet target set for July-December 2010-2011.
The FBR has directed Members Operations Domestic Taxes North and South to take necessary steps. Similarly, refund of Rs 44.499 billion of income tax and Rs 45.111 billion of sales tax should be taken care of and be issued to the taxpayers expeditiously, the FBR added.
Sources said that during the two months of the current financial year, tax paid with returns and advance tax increased by 385.9 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. The FBR has directed the field formations that all-out efforts be made to achieve the budgetary target on quarterly basis.
A comparison of performance of domestic taxes for the financial years 2009-10 and 2010-11revealed that there has been an increase of 24.4 percent, 30.7 percent and 26.7 percent in direct taxes, sales tax and Federal Excise Duty targets for the current year, respectively as compared to the immediately preceding year.
Comparing the collection figures of July-August, 2010-11 with 2009-10, the FBR data said that while there was no increase in direct taxes, sales tax has registered an increase of 19.5 percent and Federal Excise Duty a decrease of 5.3 percent during the corresponding period. The collection out of arrears during the period July-August registered a decrease of 44.6 percent, whereas collection out of current demand decreased by 87.9 percent resulting in overall decrease of 71.7 percent, FBR added.