Caretaker Sindh Minister for Excise and Taxation and Revenue Syed Shabbar Zaidi said that all provincial revenue departments should be consolidated and then integrated with the federal authority to address taxpayers' issues. Speaking at a pre-budget seminar organised by Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) at RTO auditorium, he said that single consolidated revenue department should be established in Sindh and integrated with federal revenue authority to provide maximum relief to the taxpayers.
He said that in order to engage political parties in resolving the issues related to the potential taxpayers, the power to collect revenue from retailers should be transferred to the provincial revenue body. He termed the communication gap between banking sector and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as one of the chief problems, saying that FBR had no access to monitor banking transactions and this practice was being done in no other country.
Caretaker finance minister of Sindh said the access to the banking transactions should be given to the FBR along with property transaction records. Moreover, he said that problems lay on both sides, which need to be settled in true spirit. In his address, president KTBA, Haider Patel said that tax base of the country had been roaming at one percent of total population for last many year, albeit there were some 25 million bank account holders, of them, a large chunk could be potential return filers. "However, the need is to formulate right policies and laws to be able to use this treasure for expanding tax net," he added.
He said that country had now over 120 million mobile users - all of whom pay 10 percent income tax on mobile use, irrespective of whether they earn taxable income or not, as well as the 19.5 percent sales tax. "Many of these users are paying income tax much below their ability and through aggressive implantation they can be tracked and audited," he maintained.
Patel proposed that exercise for broadening tax base had to be a regular ritual of the tax administration and should not be left to special initiatives only. He termed duplicity of jurisdictions assigned to field offices as a major impediment, providing lucrative opportunity to the potential smart non-filer to remain away from tax ambit by challenging jurisdictions.
He suggested that electronic log system of notices issued to existing as well as potential taxpayers should be immediately introduced to avert malpractices in regional tax offices. He also urged the FBR to select cases for audit each year and should finalise the selection as per court directives.
Arif Habib, Chairman Arif Habib Group, Rehmatullah Khan Wazir, Chief Commissioner, LTU, Karachi, Khawaja Tanveer Ahmed, Chief Commissioner, RTO, Karachi, Anwar Goraya, DG, special initiative, Ali A Rahim, former president, KTBA, former president Pakistan Tax Bar Abdul Qadir Memon, Muhammad Zubair, Rashid Malik, Indirect Tax Expert, Muhammad Zeeshan Merchant, general secretary, KTBA and others were also present on the occasion.