LAHORE: The Regional Tax office (RTO) Lahore has got First Information Report (FIR) registered against a banker for allegedly hindering tax recovery from one of its account holders through freezing of account, said reliable sources.

According to sources, this is first-ever legal action taken by the RTO Lahore against a banker for not cooperating with it on recovery of tax from one of its account holders. Earlier, they said, a show cause notice was also issued to another banker for leaking the information to his account holder before freezing his account. Accordingly, the said account holder had transferred his deposits before freezing of the account, they added.

They said the FIR has been lodged under Section 420 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) while issuing taxpayer in default notice to the bank management.

The sources have further stated that the Corporate Tax Office (CTO) Islamabad has also followed the suit and lodged another FIR for tax recovery in the federal capital.

It may be noted that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had revoked in October 2021 the clause that made it mandatory for taxmen to warn defaulters 24 hours before freezing their bank accounts, which tax lawyers dubbed as harassment and a dent to ease of doing business. The field formations have been allowed to exercise the powers vested under SRO 274(1)/2020 dated April 2nd, 2020, and Section 48 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 for recovery of outstanding demands.

It is worth noting that former FBR chairman Shabbar Zaidi had made it mandatory for the tax collectors to intimate defaulters before suspending their account, keeping the FBR chairperson in loop. It may be noted that Section 140 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, deals with the recovery of tax from persons holding money on behalf of a taxpayer.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022