Karachi Regional Tax Office (RTO) has set up an audit desk at the Collectorate Audit V to facilitate those taxpayers who have been issued audit notices under the section 25 of the Sales Tax Act 1990, Business Recorder learnt Wednesday.
According to sources the department has issued over 3,000 Directorate of Revenue Receipt Audit (DRRA) notices to the taxpayers, asking them to provide records for the period of 2009-10 prescribed under the Sales Tax Act 1990 regarding scrutiny and examination to verify the payments of the sales tax.
They said the department on behalf of DRRA has issued audit notices to the taxpayers as the DRRA, which is a branch of Auditor General of Pakistan, could not audit the record of private enterprises/industrial units licensed/registered under the Sales Tax Act 1990.
On the other hand, the Karachi Sales Tax Bar (KSTB) has termed the issuance of audit notices, signed by the deputy commissioner Inland Revenue (IR), as against the law and said that according to the section 25(1) of the Sales Tax Act 1990, the authority of having an access to the record /documents lies with the commissioner IR only.
When contacted in this regard, the Deputy Commissioner IR Jamshed Ali Talpur said the tax collecting authority has authorised the officer of the Revenue Monitoring Cell to initiate an audit under the section 25 of the Sales Tax Act 1990. He dispelled the impression that the selection of cases for the said audit has been done by the RTO Karachi, and said the department neither initiated the audit exercise for the period of 2009-10 nor selected cases for this purpose.
Furthermore he said the department has only issued audit notices to those taxpayers only who were pinpointed by the DRRA, and the department has also set up an audit desk at the Collectorate Audit V to facilitate those taxpayers in this regard, he added.