ISLAMABAD: Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Dr Asif Mahmood Jah has strongly recommended to the FBR to immediately issue a notification to considerably enhance regulatory duties on the import of all kinds of non-essential items and luxury goods to reduce imports.

Talking to Business Recorder Wednesday at the FTO Office, Dr Jah said that the matter of reducing the import bill is very serious and needs immediate issuance of the SROs. The FBR is conducting the said exercise and a major increase in RDs is required for curtailing the imports. The higher rates of RDs should be imposed on all kinds of non-essential items and import of items “manufactured locally”. The second option is to ban the import of luxury items for a specific time period, he added.

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In the last budget (2021-22), the FBR had increased regulatory duties on the import of mobile phones, tobacco, shampoos, cosmetics, tyres, tiles, dinner sets, padlocks, LCD and LED from July 1, 2021.

Sharing major budget proposals of the FTO Office being reviewed by the FBR, Dr Jah stated that there is a general complaint on the part of the taxpayers that the income tax return form to be filed under section 114 of the IT Ordinance 2001 is very complex and difficult to understand and still difficult to fill. It is recommended that the annual IT return form may be simplified by having a single page with fewer columns to fill, in both English and Urdu languages. More emphasis should be placed on filing annexures with returns wherever required.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022