To unearth rich people not filing tax returns, the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has decided to obtain data on purchase of new cars from dealers and manufacturers of cars for bringing these non-filers into the tax net. Official sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday that the CBR has issued instructions to all Regional Commissioners of Income Tax (RCITs) to unearth new taxpayers on the basis of data regarding purchase of new cars.
In this connection, the CBR has authorised Commissioner of Income Tax Companies-II Karachi to obtain information from Indus Motors. In Lahore, the Commissioner of Income Tax Zone-B Lahore will approach Honda Motors for obtaining information pertaining to booking of new cars.
The CBR has asked the commissioners to thoroughly scan the cars' data with manufacturers/dealers for discovering new taxpayers.
The CBR has also directed Commissioner of Income Tax Companies-II Karachi and CIT Zone-B Lahore to submit progress on the data provided by KESC, Wapda, mobile phone companies and car manufacturers for unearthing new taxpayers.
Sources said that the CBR Chairman Abdullah Yusuf has asked these two commissioners to meet Wapda Chairman and KESC managing director regarding utilisation of data.
The CBR is approaching Wapda and KSEC requesting them to print the NIC number of the commercial and industrial consumers on the electricity bill. This will help the tax authorities in identifying the non-filers of income tax returns for the broadening of tax base. The CBR will match the information with the database available with the tax authorities to see which commercial and industrial consumers are out of the tax net.
Officials said that the non-filers detected thorough this exercise would be served with notices under Income Tax Ordinance 2001 for compliance.
The CBR has also decided to obtain the list of National Tax Number (NTN) holders from the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) for issuing notices in cases where taxpayers have not filed tax returns, sources added.