Tax recovery through freezing bank account termed harsh measure

KARACHI: The Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has raised the issue of harsh recovery measures by tax departments even in those cases where appeals have been filed.
“The recovery measures are very harsh and the bank accounts are frozen, ignoring the fact of filings of appeals. Stay applications before respective Appellate Commissioners are also not entertained accordingly,” the KTBA said on Tuesday.
The bar recently invited chief commissioners of Inland Revenue of the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) in Karachi to discuss the problems being faced by the taxpayers. The tax bar said inclusion of taxpayers in the Active Taxpayers List (ATL) is a cumbersome job and a few manual returns filed were not made part of the ATL and even those returns filed on IRIS – FBR online system – were also not included in the ATL.
“Proper, speedy and simple procedure should be adopted to include the name of the taxpayer in ATL,” the tax bar demanded.
It is discussed that during the process of sales tax registration, the physical verification had become difficult and time consuming. “Reasonable time limit should be prescribed for visiting the premises and finalising the report,” the KTBA said.
Discussing the suspension and blocking, the tax bar said the tax departments have been taking such measures instantly, but the procedure for withdrawing suspension and de-blocking is very problematic and time consuming. The KTBA said that the permission for revision of returns was taking a long time. The bar suggested that there should be three to five days time specified from the date of application received by the commissioner Inland Revenue in their e-folder or acknowledged by the tax facilitation department.
The tax bar said the issue that the taxpayers in the final tax regime (FTR) selected for audit, which the Audit Policy excluded them, had not been removed.
The chief commissioners are arguing that they were waiting for response from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The tax bar informed its members that in a case where a notice has been received in FTR cases, then it should be referred to the chief commissioner Inland Revenue of respective RTOs for redressal. The chief commissioners have been informed that the application of SRO 136/2015 issued on February 13, 2015 was prospective in nature, but some field officers were giving it a retrospective effect.
At the meetings, the LTU was represented by Dr Muhammad Irshad, chief commissioner of LTU, whereas RTO was represented by Muhammad Ali Indher, chief commissioner, RTO, Lubna Farrukh Mirza, chief commissioner, RTO-II and Ahmed Saeed Siddiqui, chief commissioner, RTO-III. The KTBA said all the chief commissioners had shown their interest to resolve the issues and also said that where necessary the issues would be discussed with the high-ups of the revenue authority.