'80pc marriage halls non-taxpayers', FBR to take action

ISLAMABAD: The FBR has found that around 80 per cent marriage halls and centres are non-compliant alone in the federal capital and the tax authorities are geared up to take stern action against them in the near future.

“Out of total 100 marriage halls, only 20 are tax compliant while 80 are non-compliant so the Regional Taxpayer Office (RTO) Islamabad is all set to take action against them,” official sources confirmed to ‘The News’ here on Tuesday.

The Chief Commission, RTO Islamabad Sajjad Haider had conveyed this message to business community belonging to the federal capital that they launched awareness campaign which would be followed through stern action if they remained non-compliant. On complaint of Ittehad Steel Mills, the tax authorities assured them to process their refunds claims if they found them genuine. Currently over Rs100 million refunds were stuck up in the FBR as many other businessmen also raised this complaint before the chief commissioner during his visit to ICCI on Tuesday.

However, according to press statement issued by Islamabad Chambers of Commerce & Industries (ICCI) on Tuesday stating that Sajjad Haider Khan, Chief Commissioner, Regional Tax Office, Islamabad said that FBR would resolve genuine tax issue of business community to facilitate them in tax payment matters.

He said all eligible taxpayers should pay tax honestly as it was a national obligation. He said FBR preferred to receive taxes with friendly approach instead of adopting coercive measures. He said the department was making efforts for broadening tax base instead of burdening existing taxpayers with additional taxes and business community should cooperate with it in such efforts.

He said soon a Tax Advisory Committee would be formed to settle tax issues of taxpayers in amicable manner. He said there were many wedding halls in Islamabad but only 15 were paying tax and urged that ICCI should cooperate with tax department in its efforts to curb tax evasion by genuine taxpayers. He said the process of tax refunds was being streamlined. He said RTO Islamabad wanted to address tax issues of business community with consultation which produced better results. He said he believed in open door policy and if any taxpayer has any genuine problem, he should visit his office without any hesitation.

Speaking on the occasion, Khalid Iqbal Malik, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that millions of rupees of taxpayers were stuck up in refunds due to which they were facing liquidity problems and urged that FBR should ensure timely tax refunds. He said FBR had extended last date for filing of income tax returns up to November 30, 2016 which was encouraging. However, he stressed that last date should be further extended up to December 31, 2016 to facilitate maximum taxpayers in discharging their tax obligations. He said RTO chief commissioner should play role in reducing gap between taxpayers and tax department.

He said FBR’s web portal “IRIS” was giving problems in e-filing of income tax returns as it was very slow and was responding timely. He said IRIS was also complicated and very difficult to understand for a common taxpayer.

He emphasised that FBR should take measures to remove all problems of IRIS and simplify it that would help in improving tax revenue.

He said putting more tax burden on existing taxpayers was not a wise approach and FBR should focus on broadening the tax base. He said that if RTO, Islamabad has tax related complaint against any taxpayer in the region, ICCI should be taken on board in such matters so that issues could be settled in an amicable manner and without harassing any taxpayers.