New tracking system: notices issued to potential taxpayers including MNAs, MPAs

Member Inland Revenue (IR) Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Khawar Khurshid Butt said here on Monday that the Board under new tracking system has served 76,000 income tax notices to the potential taxpayers, including members of the provincial and national assemblies.
Addressing a press conference at the Regional Tax Office (RTO) Lahore, Khawar said that the Chief Commissioner FBR Inland Revenue Lahore Ansar Javeed and his team had developed an excellent tracking system for the FBR under which, notices were issued to the potential taxpayers who made taxable transactions during the ongoing fiscal year. "The notices are being served to potential taxpayers irrespective of their status", he claimed and added that a good number of people had filed their taxable returns in April and May due to this new system.
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was also served income tax notice who visited tax house on Monday to get information about his notice. The FBR also served income tax notice to famous singer Ali Zafar on big property deal during the ongoing fiscal year. Khawar Khurshid Butt said top political leadership of country was well aware about the question raised by media and public about their tax payments. So to achieve Rs 1952 billion revenue target it is crucial for them to pay taxes and declare their taxable assets as well. He also instructed the Chief Commissioners to get information of FBR staff and also ensure filing of their tax returns and action against those evading taxes.
Talking about achieving Rs 1952 billion target, Khawar said it could be achieved by working on four fronts including improvement in tax compliance, effective monitoring of withholding agents, broadening of tax base by adding new taxpayers and evaders. He said that FBR was facing human resource shortage in tax broadening process, which would be addressed by utilising extra tax machinery in KPK. He said that there was more staff in KPK as salaries were higher there under a special package announced by the prime minister while workload is not that much. He said that staff rationalisation would be made in next 4 to 6 weeks. He made it clear that there would not be a major reshuffle in this process.
Appreciating the performance of the Lahore Inland Revenue performance, he said information regarding 300,000 high value transactions was collected from various sources like purchase of immovable property, registration of motor vehicles, booking of motor vehicles, expensive schools/colleges, Lesco and club membership, in Lahore.
On the basis of this information, 94,000 new taxpayers, 36,000 non-filers of returns for tax years 2010 and 21,500 cases of suspected under declaration of income have been detected.
During May, 2011 action against 2,152 non-compliant taxpayers with highest tax evasion has been completed. Out of these 2,152 cases, assessments have been finalised in 1,290 cases and a total demand of around 894 million has been created. 862 taxpayers have been made compliant and filed returns with tax paid along with returns at Rs 38 million. During June, 2011 action shall be completed against another 3,000 non-compliant taxpayers with highest tax evasion. This process shall continue with full force against all identified non-compliant taxpayers, he added.
Butt said that in order to bring money earned on booking of motor vehicles RTO, Lahore has collected the entire data of motor vehicle booking from three major car manufacturers namely Pak Suzuki, Indus Motors and Honda Atlas. This information has been forwarded to the field formation to initiate action against persons who have been engaged in this business. Assessments have been finalised in 70 cases so far and demand of Rs 110 million has been created so far. Comprehensive strategy has been involved to take action against major restaurants involved in under declaration.