75,000 major cases of undocumented persons: new 'Trekker' system to help FBR initiate proceedings

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would be able to start income tax proceedings against 75,000 major cases of undocumented persons with the help of "Trekker", a third party data warehouse, to support the ongoing exercise of broadening the tax-base during 2011-2012.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that the new "Trekker" is entirely different from the old "Trekker" system which has limited data of third party information. The newly revamped "Trekker" system has been assisting the intelligence unit of the FBR to expand the tax-base by including new cases in the FBR's databank.
With the introduction of "Trekker" by April 15, 2012, another 75,000 cases of potential unregistered persons shall be added in cases where broadening the tax-base proceedings have been initiated against rich persons. The "Trekker" will process 94,000 new cases with primary focus on big cases of persons earning huge income but operating out of the documented regime.
So far, the FBR has started tax proceedings against 487,242 cases under the exercise of broadening the tax-base. Recently, a number of 46,947 income tax returns have been enforced and income tax assessments in 30,360 cases have been finalised and income tax demand of Rs.9.114 billion has been created. The recovery proceedings against the elite class have able to recover an amount of Rs715 million through the ongoing exercise of broadening the tax-base during 2011-2012.
Sources said that the "Trekker" is a third party data warehouse supported by a workflow and management information system (MIS) module, developed for the purpose of broadening of tax base.
In its first year of the operation, the "Trekker" will handle approximately 94,000 cases and will be operated in all the 18 Regional Tax Offices (RTOs). It is primarily focused towards detecting unregistered individuals but also detects registered persons who have made high value transactions in a tax year.
According to the features and benefits of "Trekker" system, it has the ability to store and cross match FBR data with Third Party data. The "Trekker" will generate (bulk & cases specific) and give a 360 degree view of a person's declared results and various types of high value transactions. The "Trekker" will also identify new taxpayers, non-filers, and risk cases for audit. The "Trekker" will provide a platform to issue notices and receive replies from un-registered persons.
One of the most important benefits of "Trekker" is that it would provide all the relevant data in one concise format for easy decision making by the tax officials. It would also be made bulk processing manageable. It reduces the workload of the field officers through an inbuilt MIS module which automatically generates progress and performance reports.
The development of work flow and MIS module of Trekker would help in smooth and effective functioning of BTB units all over Pakistan.
The "Trekker" is platform which can be further developed to be used for other purposes other than broadening the tax-base (BTB), sources added.