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Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue/Federal Minister Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan has said the government has successfully delivered on all the promises made with the business community during the last five years.
"The business community asked us for amnesty, we gave them; they asked us for lowering the tax rates, we did that; in some cases, we gave them even more relief than what they asked and the entire purpose of facilitating the business community was to foster business activities, promote growth and generate more revenues in the process," he said while chairing the ceremony for Computerised Balloting for Audit held at FBR House today.
He said the government had bridged the gap between the business community and the tax collectors and it was expression of the trust and confidence that the government reposed in the taxpayers and the general public. "The taxpayers have surely responded to that by helping FBR achieve several milestones on the revenue growth front but the onus now lies on the non-filers to come forward and pay their due share of taxes by benefiting from the incentives and facilitation FBR has offered them," he said.
Earlier, parametric computer ballot as per Audit Policy 2017 was held for selection of cases for audit for Tax Year 2016 and Tax Periods from 1st July, 2015 to 30th June, 2016, in respect of Income Tax, Sales Tax & FED. Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan and representatives of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Institute of Chartered Accountant of Pakistan (ICAP), Pakistan Tax Bars Association (PTBA), Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and FBR officers were also present on the occasion.
Highlighting the economic and tax policies of the government, Haroon Akhtar Khan underscored the importance of audit in a country like Pakistan where universal self assessment scheme is prevalent. He elaborated that in order to facilitate the taxpayers, it was decided that the case of a tax payer once selected for audit under section 214C of Income Tax Ordinance 2001, section 72B of the Sales Tax Act 1990 and section 42B of the FED Act 2005 will not be selected for audit for next (consecutive) two tax years. For such purpose, base year would be Tax Year 2015 for Income Tax & Tax Periods July 2014 to June 2015 for Sales Tax & Federal Excise Duty. He further added that all cases of income exclusively from salary and where the salary exceeds 50% of taxable income would are excluded from this parametric computer balloting. However, the salary cases having business income were not excluded from this balloting.
The Minister assured that the tax audit would be conducted in a professional and transparent manner. The selection was based on risk parameters resultantly compliant taxpayers would not be selected.
Later on, computer ballot was conducted in respect of six categories i.e. corporate cases of Income Tax, Sales Tax and FED & Non-corporate case of Income Tax, Sales Tax and FED. Resultantly the cases were selected for audit for Tax Year 2016. The cases have been selected for audit in respect of six categories are detailed as under:
| i. | Income Tax (Corporate) | 1,499 |
| ii. | Income Tax (Non-Corporate) | 34,515 |
| iii. | Sales Tax (Corporate) | 1,274 |
| iv. | Sales Tax (Non-Corporate) | 7,532 |
| v. | Federal Excise Duty(Corporate) | 28 |
| vi. | Federal Excise Duty(non-Corporate) | 20 |
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| Total | 44,868 | |
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National Tax Numbers/ CNIC of cases selected for audit would shortly be displayed on the official website of FBR. The Audit Policy 2017 for Tax Year 2016 has been placed on the official website of FBR.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue/Federal Minister Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan held separate meetings with the office-bearers and members of Pakistan Retail Business Council (PRBC) and All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association who came to share with him various budget proposals and recommendations to further boost their respective sectors.
The Minister assured them the government was keen to present a pro-industry, pro-businessman and growth-friendly federal budget and all genuine and realistic proposals and recommendations for the upcoming budget would be favourably considered and made part of the Finance Bill.
