Importers exempted from audit

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has agreed to exempt commercial importers from the auditing, industry sources said on Friday. The sources said the FBR, at a meeting with the business leaders, agreed in principle that the tax authorities would not conduct auditing of commercial importers’ cases. 

A five-member delegation of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), headed by its president Zubair Tufail, held a meeting with the Member Inland Revenue (Policy) on Friday to discuss various issues pertaining to audit and inspection and two percent additional sales tax on unregistered persons.

“However, in cases where sufficient evidence of under-invoicing or mis-declaration was detected, the FBR will select such taxpayers for examination,” said a FPCCI delegation’s member. In other cases, the member added that the FBR would not take an auditing action.

The delegation said tax departments had issued a plenty of audit notices to businessmen and were conducting raids on their premises. It was agreed that a chief commissioner of Inland Revenue instead of a commissioner should be authorised to approve any raid, which would only be conducted on the basis of sufficient evidences.  

The meeting agreed that if a raid was conducted on the basis of false information, the chief commissioner would be held responsible. On the issue of two percent additional sales tax on supply to unregistered individuals, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry advised that the tax should be withdrawn as the FBR was losing a huge amount on account of 17 percent sales tax from such supplies.