Tracking, documentation of cases of the rich: FBR installing national monitoring system

The Federal Board of Revenue has decided to install a national monitoring system at the Board Headquarters for tracking and documentation of around 20,000 cases of wealthy persons sent to the Regional Tax Office (RTOs) for registration to ensure transparency in broadening the tax base.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the FBR has issued instructions to the Pakistan Revenue Automation Authority (Pral) during the Chief Commissioners Conference to develop a system which would allow the senior level FBR officials to check the progress of each case of documentation through online computer system.
Presently, the FBR has provided an online link of the computerised national identity card (CNIC) verification to all Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) with the help of Nadra. Under this system, a complete address of a person could be traced at the level of the LTUs/RTOs. Through the proposed system, the FBR officials would be able to monitor the progress of the officials in the field formations to avoid cases of harassment and misuse of the information dispatched to the field formations.
According to sources, the newly established Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation, Inland Revenue headed by Shahid Hussain Asad comprises officials with high integrity. At the same time, they would have the powers of income tax assessment and audit of new taxpayers for detecting cases of fiscal frauds, non-reporting, under-reporting and concealment of income by persons evading direct taxes.
Thus, there is need of a mechanism for constant monitoring of the documentation of the national economy. During the chief commissioners conference, it has been informed that the FBR would keep a strict check on its officials to ensure proper utilisation of the data on regular basis.
The Pral, IT arm of the FBR, would devise the system in such a manner that the Director General Intelligence and Investigation and other senior FBR officials would practically review the progress of each case on their computer monitors. In this way, an authentic mechanism would be put in place to monitor the performance of special teams working in the field formations for broadening the tax base.
The senior management of the FBR would be in a position to question the officials in the field formations that is why some cases have been brought into the tax net despite authentic data with documentary evidence of persons having taxable income.
The proposed software to be developed by the Pral would operate from FBR Islamabad Headquarters and monitor all RTOs simultaneously for the purpose of the broadening the tax-base. The chief commissioners conference also discussed measures to improve revenue collection in the remaining period of current fiscal. It has been decided that the field formations would pursue the airlines for payment of 5 percent withholding tax deducted on domestic routes.
In this connection, the FBR has directed the Regional Tax Office Karachi to co-ordinate with the national flag carrier for payment of the remaining amount of tax deducted on domestic air tickets. Similarly, the FBR has issued a directive to the RTO Islamabad to recover the withholding tax on domestic air travel from a private airline falling within the jurisdiction of the said RTO. The FBR has received partial payments from such airlines and recovery of the entire amount collected by the airlines from the travel agents on domestic air tickets needs to be collected and deposited in the national exchequer.
Referring to the overall revenue collection performance, sources said that the chief commissioners conference appreciated that the FBR has been able to surpass the target of Rs 142 billion set for March 2011 and maximum efforts would be made for the recovery of genuine demands collectable under the tax laws. Sources said that the chief commissioners conference also reviewed the progress of the withholding tax audit of banks.