LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sped up issuing of notices to taxpayers to enhance recovery efforts in a situation when all the industrial sectors are bleeding due to internal and external pressures, said sources.

The industry sources said notices against the tax year 2016 are being received by them from the field formations of the Board nowadays. They said the frequency of such notices has been doubled over the recent past and each industrial unit is receiving them one after another in tones on daily basis. They said they are clueless as whether they should focus to keep their operations intact or respond to notices through expensive tax consultants.

The industry sources have further pointed out that forced recoveries are being made by the Board while attaching bank accounts of taxpayers. As per the modus operandi, they said, the field formations issue notices on Friday afternoon usually and do not let them approach the court of law for availing a restraining order by attaching the accounts on the very outset of the next week.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday withdrew instructions issued by former FBR chairman Shabbar Zaidi to tax officials of seeking FBR chairman’s approval and a 24-hour prior intimation to the CEO/principal officer/owner before attachment of a bank account.

Most of the industrialists are remembering former Chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi who had issued his first major directive to the field formations that there would be no bank account attachment in May 2019 unless taxpayer’s chief executive officer/owner is informed at least 24 hours prior to attachment and the approval of the chairman FBR is obtained.

However, the Board had withdrawn these instructions in October 2021 to all its field formations here on Monday regarding attachment of bank accounts under Section 140 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, and Section 48 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, Withdrawal of Directive. Since then, the tax officials are not legally bound to take prior approval of the FBR chairman and give 24-hour prior intimation to the CEO/principal officer/owner of companies before their bank accounts attachment.

It may be noted that the business community has termed the opening up of a floodgate of notices as an act of harassment on the part of the Board, aiming to take up the issue with both the Chairman FBR as well as the Finance Minister ahead.

According to them, the return of such forced recovery is being offered only through refunds, availing of which is not less than a Herculean task in Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023