LTU Karachi collects Rs5.1bln under one-off super tax

KARACHI: A tax department has so far collected more than five billion rupees under the head of one-off super tax imposed on big companies by the federal government in the budget of the current fiscal year of 2015/16 to rehabilitate temporary displaced persons (TDPs), sources said on Monday.
The sources said the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi, the largest revenue collecting arm of the Federal Board of Revenue, collected Rs5.1 billion from companies required to file their income tax return by September 30.
The deadline for filing of the income tax return was extended to November 30 for all the categories of taxpayers from August 31, or September 30.
The sources said the super tax was estimated on the basis payment received from big companies for the tax year 2015.
They said this amount will significantly increase as big corporate entities are required to file their income tax returns by December 31, 2015.
The government, in the budget 2015/16, imposed one-time super tax for the tax year 2015 to meet growing revenue needs for the rehabilitation of TDPs.
The tax was proposed at a rate of four percent of income for banking companies and three percent of income for all others.
Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, in his budget speech on June 03, 2015, said the terrorism and counter-terrorism efforts had resulted in displacement of hundreds of thousands of people of federally administered tribal areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from their homes. The vulnerable sections of the population, women, children, elderly and sick have suffered the most.
“The cost of their rehabilitation has been estimated at Rs80 billion. These direct affectees of the war on terror deserve the full support and facilitation of the nation,” the finance minister said.
He hoped that provinces would also contribute their due share in this national cause and the entire receipts from this source should be utilised for the rehabilitation of TDPs.
The super tax is imposed on profit on debt, dividend, capital gain, brokerage and commission; any other taxable income of a person, imputable income; income from production of oil and natural gas and extraction and exploration of other mineral deposits and banking and insurance businesses.
The super tax is required to be paid, collected and deposited along with return of income as defined in the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and the provisions pertaining to filing of return, assessments, appeals, collection and recovery of tax would apply. A commissioner of Inland Revenue has been empowered for assessment and recovery of super tax.
Most of the companies, having large turnover, are registered with the three LTUs of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.