ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has selected 44,868 tax cases through parametric computer ballot on Thursday.
Parametric computer ballot as per Audit Policy 2017 was held on Thursday for selection of cases for audit for tax year 2016 and tax period July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016 in respect of income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty.
Out of the total returns filed, the FBR selected 7.5 per cent cases for audit for tax year 2016. Total 44,868 tax cases have been selected for audit in respect of six categories. The break-up showed that 1,499 cases of income tax (corporate) and 34,515 cases of income tax (non-corporate) were selected. Similarly, 1,274 cases of sales tax (corporate) and 7,532 cases of sales tax (non-corporate) were also selected. Meanwhile, 48 cases were selected from FED under corporate and non-corporate.
While speaking on this occasion, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Senator Haroon Akhtar said that we have ended the tax audit of salaried class. 70 per cent of people will benefit from this including army personnel and judges.
All cases of income exclusively from salary and where the salary exceeds 50 per cent of taxable income are excluded from this parametric computer balloting. However, the salary cases having business income were not excluded from this balloting.
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 taxpayer 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 an audit for the next (consecutive) two tax years. For such a purpose, the base year would be Tax Year 2015 for Income Tax and Tax Periods July 2014 to June 2015 for Sales Tax and Federal Excise Duty.
The minister assured that the tax audit would be conducted in a professional and transparent manner. The selection was based on risk parameters where reluctantly compliant taxpayers would not be selected.
He further said that 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,”
Senator 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.
