Violation of apex court''s decision: taxpayers being forced to pay 15 percent flood surcharge

In a clear violation of apex court''s decision, the field officers of the department are forcing taxpayers to pay 15 percent flood surcharge on payment of tax under section 113 of the Ordinance. The issues were highlighted by the Karachi Income Tax Bar Association (KITBA) in its letter, seeking clarification from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in this connection.
"The field officers of tax department are asking to pay 15 percent flood surcharge on payment of tax under section 113 of the Ordinance, albeit the apex court has directed to the authority concerned to deal the same as minimum tax without imposing further levy," the letter said.
It said that after centralisation of the issuance of NTN, the taxpayers are facing problems in its issuance, correction, and sales tax registration. Therefore, it has been suggested to depute the officers at all tax offices to ensure smooth co-ordination between FBR and the taxpayers, besides minimising unnecessary delay.
In addition, the taxpayers are also suffering from unreasonable, unjustifiable and bogus collection demands by the tax collecting authorities, especially in LTU cases, the letter alleged.
Further, it said that after the amendment made in respect of capital gains under the Income Tax Ordinance, the withholding agents in this respect are liable to e-file quarterly withholding statement via e-portal. But the same is not available on-line, creating problems for the taxpayers to e-file quarterly withholding statement in time. Nevertheless, the sales tax authorities are continuously blacklisting and blocking the units without prior notice to the respected person/unit, the letter added.
The Bar suggested that before blacklisting or suspension of the registered persons, the guidelines issued by the board vide sales tax general order no 3/1004 dated June 12, 2004 should be strictly followed in letter and spirit besides allowing registered persons to file appeal against the same.
It said the tribulations of the taxpayers regarding the centralised expeditious refund system (ERS) could only be resolved, if these were sorted out by concerned tax department.
The bar also recommended to the board to send e-mails regarding any discrepancy or requirement to the registered persons in order to resolve the issue expeditiously.