PESHAWAR: To improve tax compliance and discourage tax evasion, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) continued its crackdown on the business premises of non-compliant taxpayers in Peshawar, on the directives of DG KPRA Fouzia Iqbal.

A team of KPRA Peshawar including Assistant Collector Khalid Mansoor, Assistant Collector Roohullah Khan, Assistant Collector Shahnawaz Khan, Assistant Collector Muhammad Imran Khan, Inspector Muhammad Afzal Abid, Auditor Hadi Hussain Bangash and Auditor Sikandar Hayat conducted a raid on a restaurant located in Peshawar Saddar Cantonment area and confiscated its record, said a statement here on Sunday.

On the directives of Fouzia Iqbal, KPRA has launched a crackdown against non-compliant taxpayers across the province.

In this regard, the KPRA team confiscated records of a big restaurant located in the Cantt area in Saddar. The restaurant was earlier served with notices and its management was asked to submit their records to KPRA. However, they did not respond to the notices, after which the KPRA team conducted a raid on the restaurant and confiscated its record, as per KPRA rules and regulations, for examination.

DG KPRA Fouzia Iqbal has said that tax evasion would not be tolerated at any cost and I would inform all the non-compliant taxpayers to start cooperation with the KPRA team and ensure complete tax compliance to avoid legal actions. She said they were observing persisting non-compliance from numerous taxpayers in Peshawar other areas and despite the issuance of several notices by KPRA certain hotels and restaurants were still not compliant after which the crackdown was launched.

She said that KPRA teams will not only confiscate their records but will also opt for attachment of bank accounts, and even sealing of businesses if the restaurant and hotel owners continue to evade tax and remain non-compliant.

“To avoid strict actions from KPRA, all registered persons who have failed to deposit tax, made short payments, not issued proper sales tax invoices, or under-reported their sales must settle their tax liabilities and deposit the due tax promptly,” said DG KPRA.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024