FEDERAL Board of Revenue (FBR) is continuing with its robust campaign to document the economy and bring more people into the tax-net which indeed is the only way of putting the country on the path of sustainable development and achieve self-reliance.
Chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi told the media men on Sunday that the tax collection body will send notices to around one hundred thousand non-filers. The FBR reportedly has already compiled data of almost 8-10 million individuals who own a house bigger than five hundred yards or an above 1000cc vehicle and the data will be used for issuance of notices in several phases. This is the first time that such seriousness is shown towards bringing the people to the tax net which should be fully supported by different segments of the society especially the media instead of portraying the steps as harassment. The very commitment is also reflected in the returns filed thus far by the people for the last fiscal year. So far 2.1 million people have filed their tax returns, which is the highest in the FBR’s history whilst the body has projected a target to enhance these returns numbers to four million for the tax year 2019. Indeed responsibility rests with the people to fulfil their obligation towards this end but at the same time, we will also request the tax collection body to simplify the procedure of filing tax returns as much as that a literate person could easily file returns on his own. For salaried class the return form should not be more than one simple page as it was in the days of Dr Mehboob-ul-Haq. Income tax of salaried class is deducted monthly from their salary but at the end of the year, it is the complicity of the online forms that stops the employees from filing their returns. Then we will also urge the FBR to make the life easy for those pensioners whose only source of income is their pension. Since their pension is exempted from tax, they should be exempted from filing returns but the same benefit should be made available to them which are available to the filers. Facilitation and simplification of procedures for the traders will also go a long way in attracting hundreds of thousands of people to document their incomes.
