ISLAMABAD: Keeping in view the declining trend in sales tax payments during the first quarter of the Financial Year 2019-20, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has established a regional sales tax monitoring cell in Karachi, Pakistan Today has learnt.
According to an office order dated 14th October 2019, FBR has established a regional sales tax monitoring cell in Karachi under the supervision of Commissioner (Inland Revenue) Karachi Jafar Raza Kazmi in order to identify the cases pertaining to fake invoices, fake transactions, sales suppression and streamlining of tax mechanism.
“A regional sales tax monitoring cell under the supervision of the Karachi IR commissioner is hereby established in Corporate Regional Tax Office (CRTO), Karachi, with immediate effect and till further orders,” the FBR order read.
As per the order, the monitoring cell will analyse/monitor monthly sales tax returns to identify cases where action under section 38 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, is required to be taken on the basis of abnormalities causing hugs decline in sales tax payments etc.
“Similarly, the cell will prepare desk audit reports showing details of record/scrutinised discrepancies observed and potential revenue involved,” it said. “After due diligence, the cell will take action under section 38 of the Sales Tax Act 1990, against the person and submit a detailed report to the Chief Commissioner-IR, Karachi.”
The FBR has strictly advised that action in specific cases should be taken within a reasonable interval of time and that the exercise should not be made frequently and be restricted to cases involving sizeable revenue leakage.
A copy of another letter of FBR dated 14th October 2019, disclosed that eight officers of FBR have been placed/posted under the administrative control of IR Commissioner Jafar Raza Kazmi.
It is pertinent to mention that FBR’s revenue collection target for the first quarter (July-September) of 2019-20 was Rs1,071 billion. However, it managed to collect around Rs960 billion during the said period.
