Around 25,000 new taxpayers added in one year: RTO

Around 25,000 new taxpayers have been added to the system in one year through data scrutiny of utility bills, schools' fee, marriage halls' booking, payment record of AG office and registration of vehicles and urban properties with Excise and Taxation and Registrar office, said Chief Commission Regional Tax Office (RTO) II Kh Adnan Zahir.
He said utility bills of Discos and SNGPL are prime source of database for the RTO-II, which is being scrutinised since last one year under the concept of Broadening of Tax Base (BTB). He said the revenue growth of the RTO-II is higher than the national tax collection growth due to a stringent monitoring. "Our collection is 22 percent higher against the corresponding period while the national tax collection growth stood at 17 percent," he added.
He said the RTO-II has recovered a tax of one billion rupees out of the audit of health department in December 2016. "We have also recovered Rs 300 million from the mother and child healthcare," he added. The RTO-II is a non-corporate RTO, having a jurisdiction of five districts including Lahore, Kasur, Nankana Sahib, Sheikhupura and Okara.
He said new taxpayers are adding to the tax roll from across the society. He said the tax office has 100 percent access to the data of public departments. However, there is always resistance from the owners of private entities. "Then, we proceed under section 176 to seek information", he added.
He said the RTO has a strong system of accountability and complaints against the wrong behaviour of field officers are addressed on priority. But the number of complaints is rare due to a periodical monitoring. In case of marriage halls, we hit the A and B category halls where influential clients hold their functions. He said the ratio of default is coming down in departments where the tax officers are conducing audit. We also hold period meetings with withholding agents and sensitise them about their duties besides updating on revision of rates. He said the RTO II has a strong monitoring of public departments and private entities about deduction of taxes under different heads. In some cases, we deduct default surcharge by imposing penalties. He said Okara is leading in the RTO jurisdiction after Lahore district.