Defaulters’ utility connections to be cut: FBR starts serving notices with 30-day compliance time

ISLAMABAD: The government has started serving tax notices to the people across the country with one-month time for compliance, or face disconnection of gas and electricity connections.

This was stated by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman on Wednesday while briefing on broadening of tax net to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance presided over by Senator Saleem Mandviwala.

The meeting was given a briefing in detail about the measures being taken to bring more people into the tax net by obtaining data from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

FBR informs IMF of its plan to register 1m non-filers

He said the FBR after acquiring data from the Nadra has started serving notices to the people across the country and they have been given 30-day time. He added that those who would not respond would face disconnection of gas and electricity connections.

“If the taxpayer failed to respond to notices within 30 days period, their utility connections would be disconnected”, the FBR chairman said.

The FBR chairman said there are 11.4 million registered persons, but not all of them are filing their income tax returns.

The FBR will work together with NADRA to expand the tax net and this financial year, the effort is to take the filers to 6.5 million against the target of 5.7 million. Presently, the income tax return filers stood at 3.3 million against 5.3 million last year.

He said that those with withholding tax deduction up to Rs15,000 will have to become income tax filers and their annual income becomes over Rs0.6 million. He added that those below Rs0.6million income are not required to file their returns.

He further stated that a third party’s data shows that there are 2.5 million people who are not filing their returns and one million out of them are potential taxpayers. We are also involving district tax officers in the process and all this information has been provided to the district tax officers for further action, he added.

He said that in the last one year, 60 percent revenue was collected from local taxes and 40 per cent on imports. He maintained that direct tax collection has reached 46 percent this year and the number of income tax filers in 2022 is 5.3 million.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023