ISLAMABAD:The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to launch a crackdown against wealthy individuals who are potential tax dodgers and those involved in massive misdeclaration of their assets and income.
The idea of launching a crackdown was triggered when the FBR found that only 1,100 individuals have declared a net worth of Rs1 billion, The News reported on Sunday.
This number further shrinks to just 100 people who have declared assets or income worth Rs3 billion across the country.
"The FBR has assigned a team for social media monitoring to identify potential tax dodgers in major urban centres of Pakistan and has found hundreds of such individuals," top official sources in the FBR confirmed while talking tothe publication.
"A dedicated team under the supervision of the FBR's Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue Service director general has been tasked to identify and then launch a crackdown against those who are shown to be worth billions of rupees but declared much less or even nil income in their filed tax returns," the sources added.
The official sources said that the FBR identified event managers in one of the major urban centres who managed a wedding event where Rs148 million was spent. This one event management company arranged four to six marriages per month.
The whole idea of launching a crackdown against potential tax dodgers was triggered when the FBR scrutinised the tax returns of 2024 and found that only 1,100 people across Pakistan declared assets worth Rs1 billion.
When the criteria were further narrowed and the benchmark was set at holding assets or income worth Rs3 billion, the number decreased to just 100 individuals out of a total population of 240 million in the country.
The FBR, the official sources said, has deputed 450 Inland Revenue Service (IRS) inspectors across the country who have been assigned to conduct on-ground surveys to verify and check those who declared significantly fewer assets and income than they actually possess.
Initially, the FBR has identified three to four major areas. For instance, social media monitoring will be closely watched to identify those involved in showing off their wealth.
The FBR has secured information from event management companies to identify potential tax dodgers and found hundreds of individuals who have spent multi-million rupees on arranging marriage functions. They have spent millions on buying jewellery and organising wedding events.
The FBR also identified a showroom owner whose assets are worth billions of rupees but who showed negligible income in his filed return.
Similarly, a real estate tycoon who constructed multi-story malls in Islamabad was found to have declared no significant assets in his returns. "We have scrutinised the last fiscal year’s returns and found massive misdeclarations, so the FBR's I&I IRS is ready to launch a crackdown against tax evaders to create a deterrent," said the official.
The FBR is in the process of hiring over 1,600 auditors for the selection of audit cases and to conduct effective audits in the current fiscal year. The FBR has set a target to collect over R 400 billion through effective enforcement in order to achieve its ambitious tax collection target of Rs14.13 trillion.
The revenue collector faced a shortfall in the first two months and is now heading toward a shortfall of at least Rs100 billion in achieving the agreed target for the first quarter (July–September) period with the International Monetary Fund. Effective enforcement is one of the options, the official concluded.