FBR asks educational institutions to provide fee payers’ details

KARACHI: The taxation authorities have expanded the process of obtaining information for netting potential taxpayers and asked the educational institutions to provide details of those who are annually paying tuition fee Rs100,000 and above, official sources said on Wednesday.
Sources in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said notices have been sent to schools, colleges and universities to provide details of education fee payers of Rs100,000 and above during a year.
There are several educational institutions, which are collecting huge fees and in the majority of cases the transactions had been made through banking channels.
The sources said the FBR had already imposed withholding tax at five percent on fee above Rs200,000 paid in a year. The educational institutions are withholding agents in this case and responsible to provide complete details of the fee payers to the revenue authority, the sources said.
An official at the Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) said despite the levy of advance tax, the payers of educational fee having taxable income remained out of the tax net.
“In order to bring those people in the tax net, such information has been sought from the educational institutions,” the official added.
The directorate general of BTB had already collected information of about 2.5 million transactions from third party sources and issued 240,000 notices to potential taxpayers for obtaining the National Tax Numbers (NTNs) and filing income tax returns.
Apart from collecting information from the educational institutions, the FBR has also issued notices to airlines for sharing information of those who are frequent domestic and foreign travelers. The banks have also been asked to provide details of cash withdrawal of Rs5 million and above.
The sources said the FBR is trying to identify the involvement of black money in the economy and those people who have taxable income, but not in the tax net.
The FBR has also sent notices to various trade bodies for providing details of their members who were not in the tax roll. Under Section 114 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, members of trade chambers and associations and professional bodies are required to file annual income tax returns.
In this connection, the FBR has also approached the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to provide details of those persons who while obtaining CNIC declared their professions as traders, vendors, businessmen or industrialists.
The directorate has also served notices on big companies in tobacco and fast-moving consumer goods, including Unilever Pakistan Ltd, Philip Morris (Pakistan) Ltd, Procter and Gamble Pakistan (Pvt) Limited, Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited, etc, for providing details of their dealers and distributors.