FBR freezes K-Electric bank accounts

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday froze bank accounts of K-Electric for the recovery of Rs677 million as outstanding under the income tax laws.

Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU)-II, Karachi – a revenue collecting arm of the FBR, on Wednesday issued the notice to the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) for freezing the bank accounts of K-Electric and pay the default amount to the FBR.

LTU-II sources said that the entire amount was default surcharge, and the company had failed to pay the liability.

K-Electric was required to collect advance tax under Sections 235 and 235A of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 from commercial or industrial and domestic consumers and deposit it to the FBR accounts.

The sources said at least nine bank accounts of the company were frozen and Rs350 million were recovered. The sources further said that the FBR was also searching other bank accounts of the utility for recovery of the remaining amount.

When contacted, K-Electric officials said they had not received any such order and were in touch with the FBR authorities.

The FBR sources said the banks are legally bound to hold and remit defaulted taxpayers’ money to the board of revenue. Any non-compliance by a bank would be treated as default made by a taxpayer and penalty could be imposed on such bank, an FBR official said.