1.238 million tax returns filed up to Feb 15, FBR informs Senate

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance, and Revenue, was informed here on Tuesday that up to February 15, a total of 1.238 million tax returns were filed against filing of 998,000 returns during same period year of last year.

An official of Federal Board of Revenue told the committee that filing of tax returns during the period recorded a growth of 24 per cent.

The meeting was held here under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem H Mandviwala, while it was attended by Senators Mohsin Aziz, Kamil Ali Agha, Nasreen Jalil, Ilyah Bilour, and officials from the concerned departments.

The meeting was informed that total number of tax returns filed during July-June (2016-17) was 1.39 million, while during 2015-16, 2014-15, and 2012-14, the number of active tax payers was recorded at 1.26 million, 1.103 million and 935,776 respectively.

The FBR officials said even after passing of deadline for filing tax returns, more than 100,000 tax returns were filed and more returns will be filed in next month when the FBR will update the tax payers' list.

Earlier, the committee also discussed further consideration of Private Member's Bill further to amend the protection of Economic Reforms Act, 1992 (The Protection of Economic Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016), introduced by Senator Saleem Mandviwala.

The officials from Finance Ministry proposed that the ministry should be allowed to present the amendment bill after detailed deliberation of the bill.

The committee directed the ministry that in next meeting it should come up with its own amended bill and then compare the both drafts.

Briefing the committee on confiscation of non-custom paid vehicles in Quetta, Peshawar and Karachi, the FBR informed the committee that during last four years 3,363 vehicles were confiscated by the Custom authorities, out of which around 3,100 vehicles had been disposed off.

It was informed that the FBR ensures the process of auction of the vehicles very quick and transparent – APP