According to a circular issued by the Central Board of Revenue (CBR), the returns of non-corporate taxpayers selected for total audit, would not be audited provided they are willing to pay 20 percent more than what they had paid on self-assessment.
This decision was reportedly taken at a meeting of the regional commissioners of income tax with the CBR Chairman Abdullah Yousuf and the CBR council. The CBR Chairman in his recent speeches has been taking credit for the introduction of Universal Self-Assessment Scheme which he invariably termed a major step to gain the confidence of taxpayers and to attract those earning taxable income but still remaining outside the tax net.
The offer of exemption from audit on payment of 20 percent more than self-assessment, however, is a policy reversal that would confront the taxpayers with the discretionary whims of the taxation officials. It would, in fact, appear to be a deliberate move to stifle the process of on-going taxation reforms.
The Universal Self-Assessment Scheme has been distorted and all the tall claims of befriending the taxpayers have turned out to be a gimmick. One would suspect that the Universal Self-Assessment Scheme is going to be gradually turned into a mechanism for the taxation officials to coerce and hoodwink the taxpayers for increasing tax yields.
This would be the shortest route for the taxation officials to increase tax collection and give up the arduous effort to increase the number of taxpayers. It will not be a far-fetched guess that the proportion of cases for total audit would now be substantially raised from the present level of 4 percent to 10 percent and more next year, thereby obtaining a sizeable increase in tax yields because the taxpayers would be willing to pay a little more tax rather than face harassment at the hands of the taxation officials.
The arbitrary action by the regional commissioners to distort the Self-Assessment Scheme should food for thought for the higher echelons of the CBR and the Finance Ministry who have to decide whether to pursue the on-going taxation reforms or to permit the taxation officials to act according to their whims.
According to available information, the decision to ask for 20 percent more tax from the assessees selected for total audit, was proposed by one of the regional commissioners. He reportedly showed a high figure of disposal of total audit cases in his region. On enquiry, it transpired that this result was achieved by employing the arbitrary method of offering the taxpayers the option of buying immunity from audit on payment of a further 20 percent in tax.
Instead of being reprimanded for having flouted the tax audit scheme, the CBR in its wisdom and true to its tradition opted to adopt the coercive method as a policy, and thus the very concept of USAS was instantly killed and buried.
As the news report revealed that this idea was actually mooted by the Income Tax Bar Association President, Younus Rizvani, who naturally expressed his happiness over the acceptance of his proposal. It seems that the Income Tax Bar Association is not much interested in the implementation of taxation reforms in the country because in a new taxation regime where the taxpayers will be willing to declare their correct income without the fear of harassment from the taxation officials, the role of both income tax practitioners (ITP) and tax officials would be significantly curtailed.
Certain circles are therefore thinking up plans to undermine the process of reform. This instance of tampering with the Self-Assessment only shows that such fears are not unfounded, and the anti-reform elements hope once the country is out of the IMF programme it should not be long before the taxation system would return to status quo ante. If they succeed, expediency, clout, arbitrariness, nuisance value and vested interests would retrieve the privilege to shape and reshape official policies and we would be again headed for the abyss that we until very recently were in.