FBR takes legal action against more than 0.3mn 'rich persons'

SOHAIL SARFRAZ

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has taken a legal action against more than 0.3 million persons belonging to elite class after issuance of notices to them under the documentation drive on the basis of third-party data collected by the Board's intelligence agencies.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that so far over 0.3 million persons have received notices to file returns with ample evidence of income earned by such rich persons. Instead of merely relying on data of Nadra, the FBR's Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue used its own sources of information for compilation of a national warehouse data. Based on the data collected by the FBR due to its own efforts, the field formations issued notices to these persons to explain their source of income under the enforcement provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. The FBR has taken legal action against these 0.3 million 'rich persons' to verify declarations made by elite class and complete income tax proceedings against the undocumented persons as per relevant provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. This was for the first time that the FBR took action against such a large number of undocumented persons in minimum time period of below one year. Another interesting aspect of the documentation drive was that the FBR had taken action against these persons on the basis of its own data collected from various sources including property data, vehicles registration, foreign travelling and other sources of information.

The legal action taken included issuance of notice under section 114, provisional assessment under section 122 (c) of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 or ex parte assessments or amended assessments, depending on the nature of the case as per Income Tax Ordinance 2001.

When asked whether Annex D (details of personal expenditure) has been abolished from the income tax return, sources said that the FBR has not withdrawn the Annex D. The Board has amended the Annex D and it would be further improved, taking into account the suggestions of the business and trade.