Non-compliant AOPs, 80,000 companies: FBR planning to block imports/exports

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is planning to block imports and exports of approximately 80,000 non-compliant companies and association of persons (AOPs) whose names are not part of the ''Active Taxpayer List''. Sources told Business Recorder here on Friday that the FBR has compiled data of non-filers of income tax returns and withholding tax statements for tax year 2009 for issuance of provisional ''Active Taxpayer List''.
The names of around 80,000 non-filer companies and AoPs would not be made part of the ''Active Taxpayer List'' unless they respond to notices and subsequently file their returns/statements under the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. The FBR has identified these 80,000 cases of non-compliant companies and AoPs, required to file their returns and statements to avoid blockage of their imports. In case they have been engaged in making imports/exports, but continue to remain non-compliant, they would not be included in the ''Active Taxpayer List''.
According to sources, the non-filers of income tax returns and withholding tax statements for tax year-2009 where no e-mail address is available will be intimated through the manual system. Under the plan, the companies and AoPs (approximately 80,000) will be sent ''Intimation Letters'' by RTOs/LTUs, for which data will be provided by the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL). On the other hand, non-filer individuals (approximately 1.1 million) will not be sent any exclusive intimation. However, they will be informed by the tax department.
Sources said that the FBR would announce the biggest enforcement measure to suspend income tax registrations of non-compliant taxpayers. The persons whose names have been excluded from ''Active Taxpayers'' List'' would not be considered as ''registered persons''. The income tax registration of those taxpayers would also be suspended who would not respond to the notices issued by the department under Income Tax Ordinance 2001. The FBR would take extreme action against the non-compliant taxpayers under the scheme of ''Active Taxpayers'' List''.
Sources said that the Board will issue warning notices to 80,000 companies and AoPs having National Tax Numbers (NTNs) to ensure their availability on the ''Active Taxpayer List''. Otherwise, their imports could be blocked in case of persistent non-compliance. Through the respective Regional Tax Offices (RTOs), the FBR will issue notices to these companies and AoPs for filing returns. In case of non-compliance, their names would not be included in the ''Active Taxpayer List'', which may result in blockage of their imports. The non-compliant companies and AoPs would not be included in the ''Active Taxpayer List''.
According to sources, the FBR has finalised the ''Active Taxpayer List'' for the business community, which would be provisionally placed on the FBR website for comments. The final list would be displayed by the FBR after obtaining comments of the stakeholders. In this way, the FBR will systematically make public the ''Active Taxpayer List'' to ensure placement of the authentic list on its website. Before formal launching, the FBR will circulate the provisional list among the taxpayers.
The FBR has already declared non-filers of income tax returns/monthly withholding tax statements as ''inactive taxpayers'', and advised the registered taxpayers to avoid transactions with ''non-active'' taxpayers, which would result in declaring such buyers as ''non-active'' taxpayers.