FBR to target house/car owners, foreign bank account holders: National Assembly body informed

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will initially target all those potential persons who have their own houses, account holders of foreign banks in Pakistan and vehicles in their own names, to bring them within the documented regime with the help of National and Database Registration Authority (Nadra).
Sharing the national plan to broaden the tax base, FBR Chairman Salman Siddique informed Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Tuesday that persons having at least one house in his name, having account in foreign banks operating in Pakistan, and a vehicle in his own name, would be the prime target of broadening the tax base. The frequent travellers abroad would also be brought within the new exercise of broadening the tax base, he added.
With the full support of the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, the documentation exercise would be launched without facing any pressure from any quarter. All preparations have been finalised, and a massive awareness campaign would be launched in this regard, he informed the committee.
Data has been obtained on the basis of the computerised national identity card numbers (CNICs), which has to be presented for the opening of a new bank account. The FBR will link up the data with Nadra database, and action would be launched against the potential persons who have neither obtained National Tax Number (NTN) nor are filing their due income tax returns. The FBR has identified over 0.7 million persons based on their profiles available with Nadra.
These individuals would be brought into the tax net under the enforcement exercise to be launched shortly, he said. As far as legal provisions of tax laws are concerned, the tax laws empower the FBR to collect information from any source. "The law permits me to access all kinds of external database", FBR Chairman said. He said: "I am more interested in analysis of data for expanding the tax base, instead of merely collecting the information".
Another important area of the national plan to broaden the tax base is to improve compliance of the withholding agents. Out of total 84,929 withholding agents, only 27,108 have been enrolled with the FBR system. The FBR will ask the withholding agents to explain why they are not enrolled with the tax department. Secondly, it would be further inquired that whether such withholding agents are deducting tax and dully depositing the amount in the national kitty, Salman said.
Appreciating the efforts of FBR Chairman, Senator Haroon Akhtar said that the plan "is very ambitious, but whenever the exercise is at its peak, the tax authorities have been changed by the government". At the time when results of such enforcement exercise are visible, the government transfers such ambitious heads of the tax machinery, he added.
Responding to this, FBR Chairman categorically told the committee that he has full support of President, Prime Minister and Finance Minister. "During ongoing reshuffling in the tax machinery, nobody has called me why I am making these transfers and postings. The whole process is without any interruption. However, there is a social pressure that a small taxpayer is paying more taxes, but a person belonging to elite class is out of the tax net".