FBR shares new format with banks to obtain data

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has shared a new format with the banks to obtain information of cash withdrawals by the account holders in a fresh move to net tax dodgers, officials said on Saturday.

The officials said the purpose of obtaining information in a new format is to identify individuals who don’t discharge their tax liabilities despite having taxable income.

The FBR officials said the banks will be required to provide details of cash withdrawal along with statement of deposits and monthly withholding statements.

The banks are required to provide information of individuals who have withdrawn cash exceeding Rs50,000 in a day and tax deductions, aggregating to one million rupees or more during a month.

The FBR amended Income Tax Rules 2002 through statutory regulatory order 1165(I)/2018 for the purpose.

Under the amended rules, the banks will need to share name, computerised identity card number, address and withdrawn amount during a month.

The rate of withholding tax for filers on cash withdrawal above Rs50,000 in a day is 0.3 percent and in case of non-filers the rate is 0.6 percent. The difference was introduced to increase the number of tax return filers from the miniscule 1.6 million. Of the total return filers, alone 700,000 pay taxes.

In the budget 2018/19, the FBR amended rules related to obtaining information of bank depositors and banks are required to submit details of individuals receiving Rs10 million into their accounts in a month.

The officials said banks refused to share information of their accountholders in the past and the issue was sub-judice.

People knowledge with the matter said the FBR is trying to convince government into legislating banking laws in order to give it an easy access to financial transactions.