ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has selected some 93, 000 people for income audit out of total taxpayers list for random audit under the audit policy 2016.
The FBR also got PSDP proposals worth Rs 14298 million for 41 projects approved for fiscal year 2017-18 from the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue.
In this regard, the Chairman FBR Dr. Muhammad Irshad along with his leading team members Rehmatullah Wazir, Dr. Raana Seerat and others briefed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue here and said that the selection of people had been made by following a six staged or layered mechanism to avoid any mistake.
While responding to the queries of the members of the committee Member Audit FBR Dr. Raana Seerat highlighted different aspects of the audit policy and said that as per Audit Policy 2016 selection of taxpayers for audit also included those cases in parametric selection process which were earlier selected for audit last year.
A major policy shift in the new audit policy is that the exclusions from audit selection have been reduced under the new Audit Policy 2016. Certain categories which were excluded from audit last year, have now been included in the parametric selection process for audit” she added.
She said that all person(s) whose entire income was exclusively subject to Final Taxation under the provisions of law as mentioned in sub-section of Section 115 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
Similarly, in income tax non-corporate returns, she said that all person(s) whose entire income is exclusively subject to final taxation under the provisions of law as mentioned in sub-section (4) of Section 115 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
So far as sales tax corporate is concerned, she said that null return filers, federal, provincial and local government departments; all cases of steel melters, and steel re-rollers who are paying sales tax under the Sales Tax Special Procedure Rules, 2007 had been included in the audit process.
On getting detailed briefing on the audit policy, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Chairman Standing Committee informed the committee about the grave concern among the industrialists on discriminatory and uneven audit policy of FBR.
He was of the opinion that FBR should facilitate the business community and general public by providing confidence for bringing them in tax net. It was also discussed that a separate institution should be established for auditing of industries etc. instead of FBR.
The committee recommended to FBR for offering their views in this regard in the next meeting. The committee recommended that FBR should revisit its audit policy for the improvement of business environment in the country. The Committee discussed the launching of amnesty scheme for repatriation of funds/assets from overseas in the country.
Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh informed the committee that said matter was raised by the President, Federation Chamber of Commerce during his speech in Karachi in the presence of finance minister and other business community. The committee unanimously recommended that in writing proposal will be obtained from business forum in this regard and will be forwarded to FBR for its further consideration, later on.
During the discussion the PSDP of Finance Division, Revenue Division and Statistics Division, the Committee recommended that new projects proposed by the Finance Division should be allocated requisite funds on priority basis.
The committee also recommended that requisite funds may be provided to Revenue and Statistics Division. However, the Committee could not consider the project of HEC due to short of time and decided to discuss the same in its next meeting on 22nd Feb, 2017.
While considering the report of the sub-committee appointed under the convenership of Mian Abdul Mannan, MNA, to resolve the anomalies of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) valuation table on property tax with consultation of the stakeholders. The committee directed to Chairman FBR for resolving the anomalies issues in light of the recommendations made by its sub-committee.