The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to rescind controversial SRO 351(I)/2014, withdrawing assessment and recovery powers of Directorate General (Intelligence & Investigation), Inland Revenue (IR) and will issue the SRO afresh with powers, functions and jurisdiction of the directorate.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had suspended the implementation of the SRO 351 a few months back and formed a committee comprising representatives of traders' associations, chambers of commerce and industry and FBR Chairman to review the fairness of the SRO. However, no meeting of the said committee took place.
Recently, the Directorate General I&I IR informed the FBR regarding implications of the suspension of the SRO 351(I)/2014. Director General of Directorate General I&I IR alluded to the causes behind suspension of SRO 351 of 2014 and emphasised the need to develop a modality which would, without impinging upon the sensibilities of the business community, meet the organisational needs.
According to decision, SRO 351 to be rescinded by the FBR Inland Revenue Policy Wing. The FBR will take action with immediate effect. In the wake of SHC's decision fresh SRO delineating the powers and functions and assigning jurisdiction to various I & I, IR authorities to be issued, IR Policy Wing. Moreover, the jurisdiction and administrative orders will be issued giving additional charge to I & I, IR authorities of specially designated zones/Units within RTOs/LTUs, sources added.
Legally speaking, the SRO 351(I)/2014 is still in the field, but its enforcement has been suspended on the announcement of the minister. SRO 351(I)/2014 had superseded SRO 51(I)/2013. Legally, till SRO 351(I)/2014 is not rescinded or amended, it is still in the field. As far as powers available under fiscal laws, the SRO cannot be suspended, but it can only be rescinded or amended. The government can only administratively direct the FBR to suspend the applicability of the said SRO. The FBR had temporarily stopped implementation of the SRO 351(I)/2014 which is still applicable, sources said.
Under the suspended SRO 351(I)/2014, the FBR had empowered the Directorate General (Intelligence & Investigation), Inland Revenue (IR) to enforce filing of income tax returns, wealth statements and compulsory registration of new taxpayers, authorising the directorate to carryout assessment/provisional assessment and audit of the registered persons for recovery of taxes.
According to the suspended notification, the powers of agency's officials were enhanced including Director General I&I IR; Directors I&I IR; Additional Directors I&I IR; Deputy/Assistant Directors I&I IR and Inland Revenue Officers I&I IR. The officers of Directorate General (Intelligence & Investigation), IR have been empowered to exercise powers under section 114 (return of income), section 116 (wealth statement), section 119 (extension of time for furnishing returns and other documents), section 120 (assessments), section 121 (Best judgement assessment), section 122 (amendment of assessments), section 122A (revision by the Commissioner), section 122C (provisional assessment), section 123 (provisional assessment in certain cases), section 124 (assessment giving effect to an order), 124A (powers of tax authorities to modify orders, etc), section 125 (assessment in relation to disputed property), section 126 (evidence of assessment), section 161 (payment of tax collected or deducted), section 162 (recovery of tax from the person from whom tax was not collected or deducted), section 174 (records), section 175 (power to enter and search premises), 176 (notice to obtain information or evidence), section 177 (audit), 178 (assistance to commissioner), section 179 (accounts, documents, records and computer-stored information not in Urdu or English language), section 180 (power to collect information regarding exempt income), section 181 (taxpayer's registration), section 182 (offences and penalties, section 205 (default surcharge), section 221 (Rectification of mistakes) and other sections mentioned in the notification.
Comments
Comments are closed.