The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to take stern action against sales tax defaulters, following serious discrepancies detected in tax returns for the period June 2014; it is learnt here on Wednesday. According to sources, a decision was made after analysing taxpayers' records obtained from the database. During scrutiny of taxpayers' records, serious discrepancies have been pointed out in a number of cases.
Sources said taxpayers had committed serious discrepancies including violation of section 8B of Sales Tax Act 1990, non-payment of further tax, non-deduction of withholding tax, non-filer, late filers, etc.
Therefore, all concerned tax offices have been directed to issue notices to these sales tax defaulters through field formation for compliance and recovery of due amount of taxes. Moreover, sources said the board, which also compiled the records of registered taxpayers, who had paid less amount of sales tax in the June 2014 as compared to the same period of proceeding year, had also ordered its tax offices to ascertain reasons for such decline in sales tax payments from taxpayers.
Besides, tax offices are also required to examine the records available at CREST system and take aggressive action to liquidate the pendency, sources maintained. When contacted, official sources confirmed to have initiated the said exercise for the recovery of due amount of taxes from sales tax defaulters, saying that the board was paying special attention to it. Field offices have also been asked to submit progress reports with remarks on a regular basis. Sources further said that although this exercise was an ongoing one, it is now been executed in an aggressive manner.