KCCI urges FBR to defer affidavit submission condition for returns

KARACHI: President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Muhammad Jawed Bilwani has advised the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to defer the condition of submitting an affidavit for sales tax returns as it compels the taxpayers to affirm that the information provided is completely accurate and true but it is most probable that the information provided would be correct to the best of taxpayer’s knowledge yet he will be penalized because of the wrongdoings done by the vendors.

The president KCCI said, “It is a very confusing situation, therefore, the FBR should either tell us with whom we should carry out our purchases or come up with SOPs for purchases as currently, we only check whether the vendor is blacklisted or not and when found spotless, we immediately carry out the purchases.”

He remembered that the top officials of the FBR had recommended that the business community should check the website before making any purchases which had been a common practice for many years. However, now they were being forced to submit an affidavit, which could be used against them if the vendor committed any tax evasion.

President KCCI further mentioned that under the FBR’s transformation plan, it has also been hinted that audits will be increased which was contrary to the claims made by the Finance Minister in his budget speech wherein it was assured to utilize maximum IT and AI-enabled services to end human interaction and transform the existing audit procedure into fully automated and real-time audit. “More audit means appointments of more auditors which would lead to further complicating the procedure and pave way for more incidents of corruption,” he said, adding that adoption of maximum IT-enabled services would reduce the number of manpower at FBR which would help in bringing down the exorbitantly high expenses of the tax collection authorities and prove favorable for the economy.

He was of the view that a lot of things going on under FBR’s transformation plan were good, but there were several issues and lacunas as well that needed to be promptly addressed in consultation with the business community and relevant stakeholders to make FBR’s transformation plan completely flawless.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024