LAHORE: The Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II), Withholding Zone, has deployed teams in Excise and Taxation Department, banks, organizations and TMAs to monitor activities and tax collections as per law. These teams also monitor withholding agents and registrars for properties tax collections.
This was stated by the Additional Commissioner Withholding Zone, Regional Tax Office –II Muhammad Ali while talking to Customs Today.
The Additional Commissioner said that withholding tax is lifeline of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) where more revenue is collected to strengthen the national economy.
He said that nine Town Municipal Administration (TMAs) of Lahore fell under the jurisdiction of RTO-II Withholding Zone that include Gulberg Town, Allama Iqbal Town, Samanabad Town, Nishter Town, Ravi Town, Wagha Town, Aziz Bhatti Town and Data Gunj Bukhsh Town. He said that tax officials visit TMAs on a routine basis.
Muhammad Ali said that almost 36,000 withholding agents are working in their jurisdiction. Withholding teams of RTO are monitoring all agents and collection of tax according to law and also observing that agents submit taxes to the department within specific time period of seven days.
He said RTO collect withholding tax on salaries, services, properties, supply and profits. Withholding zone also collects taxes on approval of map and sales of properties in the city.
Answering a question additional commissioner told that officers also check that withholding zone collect tax according to the national growth or less, how much tax collected in the month and year.
Talking about the monitoring teams Muhammad Ali told that three teams monitoring the income tax and one sales tax. He said these teams are headed by assistant/ deputy commissioner, two inspectors and two clerks included in each team.
He told that teams ensure periodic checking of the Excise and Taxation department, banks and salaries points, focal person go on the points where activities done so.
He said that most officials of withholding zone work in their offices till 12 pm and go in the field till 5pm for monitoring.
Muhammad Ali said that Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II) updated lists of withholding agents and educates the withholding agents and registrars about the newly introduced properties ordinance and also awareness about updated system.
Additional Commissioner said that the RTO-II focused on continuous stringent audit of withholding agents and ensured timely payment of taxes throughout the year.
He said that Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II) team paid surprise visits to companies to check status of salary disbursement among employees. The RTO team also detected that whether these companies were paying their tax liabilities according to their income or not.
He said that tax collection is difficult from individuals but RTO-II withholding zone working efficiently and collecting more taxes to meet the revenue collection target. He told that textile sector falls under the jurisdiction of Regional Tax Office (RTO-I) but after the separation of corporate and non-corporate tax payers textile sector shifted from RTO-I to RTO-II.
He said that he believes on team work and in the team no one superior or inferior, Commissioner Withholding Zone Dr. Shahid Saddique, and Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Sajid Ahmed and other officials are performing duties sincerely to expand tax collection.
He said leadership qualities, confidence and motivation by Chief Commissioner RTO-II Khawaja Adnan Zaheer is main factor that RTO showed outstanding performance.