Prominent Pakistanis: FBR working on plan to create tax directory
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue is working on a plan to create an internal database of tax paid and assets of prominent Pakistanis - parliamentarians, bureaucrats particularly tax officials, judiciary, army generals, media and artists/players - with the prime objective of broadening the tax base.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the FBR is planning to maintain a tax directory or database about the assets and tax payments made by the prominent citizens of the country. These prominent Pakistanis are directly engaged in the legislation of tax laws, implementation of tax rules/regulations and interpretation of tax laws. All these categories of prominent citizens have direct links with the taxpayer's money or tax laws. The government can utilize this data whenever required. The data would be compiled with the broader objective of the broadening the tax-base and assist any government organization in providing up to date information about the assets and tax payments of any prominent Pakistanis, if permissible under applicable laws.
There is a general perception among the public that nobody is ready to check assets and tax payments of prominent Pakistanis and why an ordinary citizen should pay taxes? To dispel such kind of impression among the masses, the FBR would gradually maintain database of prominent Pakistanis under the long term strategy for cross matching of information available with the department and broadening the tax-base.
People think that how much tax has been paid by prominent people of the country and how many assets have been made by them. It is a long term policy to compile database of such famous citizens of the country, sources said.
As per sources, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has provided the printed copies of assets declarations of the Members National Assembly and Members Provincial Assemblies for 2010 to the FBR. This information would be made part of the tax directory or internal database of the FBR. The FBR will also acquire information about the assets of the MNAs and MPAs for the year 2011 from the ECP for incorporating the same in its internal database.
At present, the information relating to assets and tax payments is scattered and all information is not available under a single centralized database. This scattered information about the tax payments of the prominent Pakistanis could not be matched with the FBR's existing database. If a MNA has declared assets and paid tax, the same information should be immediately accessible to the centralized database. There is a need for creating a centralized database of the assets and tax payments of the prominent citizens under the long term strategy of the FBR. There is no need to obtain any permission from Parliament or policy makers for maintaining internal database which would not be made public.
Once this information has been made part of the internal database the FBR will be in a position to analyze the data for cross verification, sources said.
Under the long term plan, the first priority of the database would given to the details of the assets of Parliamentarians and senior most bureaucrats including FBR tax officials, who are directly involved in making and implementing the tax laws. Parliamentarians are the prominent Pakistanis who are directly linked with the legislation of tax laws and tax officials have been directly engaged in the implementation of the tax laws. Tax officials, who are collecting taxes from business community on daily basis, must also disclose their assets and tax payments. Therefore, the tax directory or database would first incorporate the data of assets and tax payments of the Parliamentarians and senior most bureaucrats.
Sources said that the judiciary would cover bar/ benches and judges of higher courts. The judiciary would also cover lawyers of High Court and Supreme Court of Pakistan, who are engaged in the interpretation of the tax laws. Similarly, the major portion of the taxpayer's money goes to defence and data would also include assets and tax payments of generals. Armed forces are the custodians of the taxpayer's money and data would incorporate the said information about generals in the FBR database.
Sources said that the database would also cover two more categories i.e. media and famous artists/players. The media is actively exposing persons involved in tax evasion and tax scams. The assets and tax payments of media would also be made part of the database covering media owners, media operators, media advisors, media anchors and other senior journalists belonging to this community. The artists and players are also very famous among the general public and their assets and tax payments would also be made part of the tax directory.
The tax department can acquire information from different sources like Election Commission, regulatory bodies including Pemra, Ogra, etc. The Board can also get information organizational database from concerned agencies and cross matching of information could be done for expanding the tax base.
One of the core functions of the Directorate General, Intelligence & Investigation (Inland Revenue) is to have access to major data bases and linkages with all major national, provincial and regional data bases. Its function also included cross matching of data with master index and tax profiles and cross matching for the purposes of countering non-reporting and under reporting of taxes. The true function of the broadening the tax base could be done by the directorate after compilation of the internal database of prominent Pakistanis. The exercise of the broadening the tax base would become more meaningful following compilation of this database under long term plan of the Board, the official added.