ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) served nearly 13 million tax notices to non-filers in three years whereas only 1.315 million people filed returns against these notices.
Member Inland Revenue Operations Dr Ashfaq informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that from fiscal year 2018-19 (FY19) to 2020-21 (FY21), the FBR served 12.8 million tax notices to non-filers of income tax returns on the basis of merit.
He said FBR had raised Rs64.3 billion tax demand in these 12.8 million cases. However, it could recover just Rs2.6 billion.
Senator Talha Mehmood of the JUI-F, who was chairing the meeting expressed his reservations over the timing of issuing these notices, adding that it was merely an attempt to harass taxpayers and grab money from them. “The FBR maliciously sent wrong tax notices to the people before close of every fiscal year to meet its annual tax targets,” he said.
Committee members, especially Senator Azam Swati asked why the number of tax notices increased so much during FY20 and then suddenly decreased. “Only 39,000 sales tax filers out of a registered 186,000 are paying taxes. The purpose of issuing these notices is corruption,” Swati claimed.
The meeting opined that the tax officers who sent wrong notices should be put behind the bars.
FBR Member Inland Revenue Service operations Mohammad Ashfaq said that the FBR had only served the tax notices but did not register cases against these people. In other countries, taxpayers are arrested when they do not discharge their obligations.
He said that of the 12.8 million tax notices served, a majority of them did not receive any response. Many people who were also not required under the law to file their income tax returns were also wrongly served with the tax notices, the FBR admitted.
The committee members observed that as compared to the first year of the PTI government, there was significant surge in tax notices served to the people, indicating growing harassment in the hands of the taxmen.
The FBR tried justifying the action by saying that taxmen were not angels but action has been taken against corrupt people. However, Ashfaq went on to claim that there was not a single corruption scandal in the FBR in the last fiscal year.
“FBR is part of the same society. When the society will correct its course, we will also be on right path,” he said.
He said that no taxpayer has ever been sent to jail, whereas based on the e-stamp data received from the government of Punjab, the FBR served 10,000 tax notices.
Federal Minister for Railways Azam Swati proposed that those who send wrong notices along with tax evaders should be severely punished. “Notices are issued not for tax but for corruption.”
Subsequently, the chairman Committee directed the FBR to enact legislation to send evaders and tax officers who send false notices to jail.
