The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has prioritised several sectors, including financial, cement, textile, sugar, oil, telecom and corporate for strict withholding tax (WHT) monitoring, Business Recorder learnt on Saturday. Sources in the Karachi Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) said that FBR is considering to monitor these sectors, aiming at plugging leakages of the revenue.
They said that the department is thoroughly reviewing the monthly WHT statements submitted by financial sector in particular. They said that major revenue leakages were detected in the financial sector, which needs to be monitored to enhance the WHT collection. They said the department is reconciling the monthly and annual statements of the financial sector and it is expected that in this connection some Rs 3 billion would be added to the exchequer.
Sources said that the LTU has taken strict budgetary measures aimed at achieving set mark for current FY 2008-09 successfully. Therefore, it is covering those areas which have escaped taxes for various reasons. They said the LTU has scrutinised the records and found several assessments in this regard and added that all arrangements have been made and legal action would be taken shortly.
They said that out of 17000 withholding agents, only 7000 were filers, resulting in huge losses to national exchequer. They also stressed the need for taking prompt measures to induct all enrolled agents in the tax base, which would definitely play a vital role in achieving the revenue target successfully. They said the Director General WHT (DGWHT) contributed over 50 percent of total revenue collection, and is facing hardship in plugging the leakage owing to inadequate infrastructure.
Sources stressed the need for providing sufficient workforce to improve efficiency of the department, and said that WHT is an important tool not only to enhance revenue collection but also to broaden tax net and for documentation. They said that the department is striving to bridge the gap in the collection of capital value tax (CVT), which has declined by around 90 percent because of decelerating stock market activity.