''Fresh amnesty scheme to send ''wrong signals'' to honest taxpayers''

Some members of the Tax Reform Co-ordination Group (TRCG) have strongly opposed the amnesty schemes, which discourage the compliant taxpayers-who are regularly paying taxes. Sources told Business Recorder, here on Saturday that the issue of the amnesty schemes came to the light during the last meeting of the TRGC headed by Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh at the FBR House.
It was discussed that the amnesty schemes either for claimants of illegal sales tax adjustments etc would not encourage the compliant taxpayers. The government has to give due consideration to the aspect of tax payments made by the compliant taxpayers before announcing any kind of amnesty scheme for any specific sector etc.
During the meeting, amnesty schemes for stock investors and illegal input tax adjustments were discussed. Some members believed that the compliant taxpayers have been engaged in regular filing of their tax returns and payments of taxes. If the government gives any kind of amnesty for non-compliant taxpayers or habitual defaulters, it would put the compliant taxpayers at a disadvantageous position. Therefore, there should not be any kind of free hand amnesty scheme for anyone. Such free hand amnesty schemes only discourages taxpayers who are paying taxes, but giving incentives to the tax evaders would only encourage people for not paying taxes.
Sources said that in some of the best tax administrations, there is no amnesty for payment of penalty/fine. However, only amnesty from imprisonment has been given to the tax evaders. The FBR had rejected proposal to grant fresh amnesty to tax defaulters and decided to recover over Rs 80 billion from claimants of the illegal input adjustments of sales tax. The decision was taken in the last FBR''s Commissioners'' Conference to pursue the cases of tax defaulters as any fresh amnesty scheme would give ''wrong signals'' to honest taxpayers.
When contacted, a tax expert said that the launching of such scheme for claimants of illegal adjustments would give a wrong message to the business community that the FBR is not distinguishing between the honest taxpayers and tax evaders. If we give such kind of amnesty to the tax evaders, it would discourage the honest taxpayers to regularly pay taxes. The tax dodgers and the taxpayers should not be treated equally, sources said. In the present circumstances, there is no intention of the tax authorities to launch amnesty schemes for those involved in mega sales tax scam, he added.