The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has called an emergency conference of the Director Generals of Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) on Sunday (today) to discuss budget proposals (2009-2010) and finalise short-term strategy to increase revenue collection in May-June 2009.
Sources told Business Recorder on Saturday that the new FBR Chairman, Sohail Ahmed would chair the conference and would discuss the revenue generation strategy with the relevant members and the DGs of the LTUs/RTOs. The conference would review collection under various heads with particular focus on weak areas.
The projections of revenue collection expected in May-June 2009 would also come under discussion. Further, the meeting would also discuss the steps to be taken for covering expected gaps in collection and assigned targets including withholding tax and advance tax. It will also review cases selected for audit.
The DGs would also inform the Board about the enforcement of return-filing vis-à-vis, sources added. According to sources, around 50 percent of the total direct taxes collection come from withholding taxes. Priority areas in withholding tax collection will be reviewed in the meeting.
Presently, the FBR has focused on withholding tax collection under section 153 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. This deduction is related to the execution of contracts and supply of goods and services. This source is very important in terms of overall contribution. There is a huge potential area for exponential growth in collection under this head.
The figures of actual collection of tax and due on the development expenditure of the government and deductions made by private sector are under reconciliation process with reference to developmental allocations by the government and expenditure by private sector. The DGs are also focusing on another key area of telecom sector under section 236 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, sources added.
The DG of Withholding Taxes has provided three years data pertaining to the tax deducted/deposited on 'profit on debt' and cash withdrawal from banks. Under this head, tax actually deposited by the banks out of tax deducted under this heads ie profit on debt and cash withdrawal. On the basis of this data, verification would be done from the banks.