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TAX NEWS APRIL 01, 2016



1.      Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme: deadline for traders extended till April 30

April 01, 2016

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended deadline for filing of income tax returns by the traders under Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS) till April 30, 2016. Haroon Akhtar Khan Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue told Business Recorder that the government has also extended date for payment of concessionary rate of withholding tax at the rate of 0.4 percent for non-filers upto April 30, 2016, he added. Meanwhile, the FBR has so far received around 7737 returns of non-filers and generated revenue to the tune of Rs 740 million under the VTCS. The working capital of approximately Rs 74 billion has been legalised under the VTCS.

2.      Nine months: FBR almost meets Rs 2.1 trillion target

April 01, 2016

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has almost met the revenue collection target of Rs 2100 billion set for the first nine months (July-March) 2015-16 by provisionally collecting over Rs 2,090 billion during this period. Sources told Business Recorder late Thursday night that the FBR is expecting an additional revenue of around Rs.10 billion on compilation of final figures in coming days. Following inclusion of Rs.10 billion in provisional data of Rs.2090 billion, the FBR will surpass the assigned tax projections for first nine months (July-March) 2015-16.

On meeting the assigned target for this period, the FBR will be in a position to meet the annual target of Rs.3103.7 billion for 2015-16 against the downward revised target of Rs.2605 billion in 2014-15. The monthly collection is around Rs.290 billion for March 2016 which is likely to be further increased. It''s a great achievement by FBR that we have almost met the target for the first nine months of this fiscal year. Growth for nine months is in excess of 19.5 percent provisionally and for March is in excess of 26 percent provisionally, sources added.

3.      Huge consignment of Indian origin cloths seized

April 01, 2016

Under the ongoing anti-smuggling drive, the anti-smuggling squads of the Customs Collectorate Islamabad seized a huge consignment of Indian origin cloths. It is learnt that the anti-smuggling squads seized near Deana Chowk, ST Road, District Jhelum, a huge consignment of Indian origin ladies sarees, fabric, stitched ladies suits, bridal dresses and laces etc, which was a full truck load coming from Chakoti, Azad Kashmir.

Three accused persons have been arrested and a Hino truck No. MD-XA-612 was also seized. FIR No.11/2016 dated 31.3.2016 has been registered and the further investigations have been initiated. The total approx value of the seizure comes to about Rs.2,670,806/-.

The MCC Islamabad has intensified its anti-smuggling drive against the smugglers on the special instructions of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Recently, an anti-smuggling operation of Model Customs Collectorate Islamabad resulted in a major seizure of consignment of Indian origin, smuggled, sexual potency enhancement drugs and 670 sets of mobile phones to the tune of millions of rupees.

The enforcement actions have been intensified and successful interceptions have been made by the anti-smuggling staff of the MCC Islamabad. Based on data analysis of smuggling trends and information-based actions, the MCC Islamabad has chalked out a comprehensive strategy to check smuggling of consignments specifically through motorways. Moreover, the anti-smuggling operations have been expanded within the territorial jurisdiction of the MCC Islamabad, plugging the loopholes through serious efforts of the anti-smuggling staff.

4.      Sales tax on motor spirit reduced

April 01, 2016

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has reduced sales tax on motor spirit from Rs 14.48 per litre to Rs 12.89 per litre from April 1, 2016. The FBR has issued SRO.268(I)/2016 here on Thursday to be effective from April 1, 2016. Under the SRO, the sales tax on Motor spirit has been fixed at Rs 12.89 per litre as compared to previous rate of Rs 14.48 per litre.
According to the SRO, the sales tax on HOBC has been fixed at Rs 13.90 per litre as compared to previous rate of Rs 18.57 per litre. Sales tax on Kerosene has been fixed at Rs 4.76 per litre against Rs 10.40 per litre. Sales tax on High speed diesel oil would remain unchanged at Rs 29.57 per litre.
Through this SRO, the sales tax on Light diesel oil has been fixed at Rs 4.72 per litre as compared to last month rate of Rs 9.63 per litre. Last month, the FBR had fixed sales tax per litre on all petroleum products from February 1, 2016, replacing the previous mechanism of charging sales tax on percentage basis. The basis for collecting sales tax on POL products was changed from February 1, 2016. Due to change in sales tax collection mechanism on POL products, the FBR will charge fixed amount of sales tax on each POL product even POL prices show major decrease internationally.
Following id the text of the SRO issued here on Thursday: In exercise of powers conferred by clause (b) of sub-section (2) and sub-section (6) of section 3 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, the Federal Government is pleased to direct that the following further amendment shall be made in its Notification No.SRO 57(I)/2016 dated 29th January, 2015, namely In the aforesaid notification, for the existing table the following shall be substituted, namely: This notification shall take effect on and from the 1st April, 2016.
Sr. No
Description
PCT heading
Rate per Litre
1
Motor spirit excluding HOBC
2710.1210
12.89
2
HOBC
2710.1210
13.90
3
Kerosene
2710.1911
4.76
4
High Speed Diesel Oil
2710.1931
29.57
5
Light Speed Diesel Oil
2710.1921
4.72

5.      Tax evasion: paper mill raided, record seized

April 01, 2016

The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue has conducted a raid on the business premises of a paper mill (Large Taxpayer Unit) of Lahore involved in massive evasion of tax and retrieved valuable records including CPUs, laptops, record documents to verify suppression of supplies/sales, causing massive loss to the national kitty.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday that the prompt action has been taken by the directorate IR on the basis of analysis of data, supportive evidence and data trends of sales tax and income tax in the said sector. During scrutiny of records, the agency has been focusing on loopholes used by big units or manufacturing units to evade the tax authorities. In this regard, a team of expert officials are day and night analysing third party data, to check possible evasion of taxes, using FBR's data base and electronic records available with the system. Within the paper sector, it is a major breakthrough of the agency to frame case against a large taxpayer unit falling within the jurisdiction of Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) of Lahore. The similar nature of actions against big companies would not only help the FBR in achievement of targets but also be instrumental in improving compliance by the other units of the same sector. Interestingly, the directorate of intelligence IR is picking cases on the basis of irrefutable evidence and intelligence based information backed by complete homework. In this specific case of LTU, intelligence gathering and market data has been analysed before framing case against the big company. Moreover, quantity of goods produced and subsequent quantity of supplies of said goods in a tax period remains almost the same but the consumption of electricity varies to a greater extent, prompting the agency to further investigate the matter.

According to the details, Directorate General, I&I-IR gathered credible information that a Paper Mills Ltd, Lahore is engaged in manufacturing of paper and paper products and is committing a massive evasion of tax by suppressing its actual value of supplies in violation of section 2(46) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990. Preliminary inquiry in the matter revealed that the declared average price per Metric Ton of paper & paper board being produced and cleared by the registered person is drastically lower than the actual value of supply on which the goods are being sold. The intelligence gathered & quotations obtained from the market revealed that presently the price of paper manufactured by the registered person in open market is Rs.93000/- per metric ton whereas analysis of declarations made by the registered person depicted that during the period January, 2011 to December 2015, the declared average price of per metric ton of the same product is around Rs.65,000/-. The profit margin of wholesaler/ dealer in this business is normally up to 5% which, thus, indicated a huge difference in the price/ value of supply per metric ton being declared by the R/P and actual value on which sale are being made. It was further noticed that during the period under reference the registered person has produced and supplied exercise books Supplies of Exercise Books" declared by the registered person was actually required to be declared as "exempt supply" instead of "zero rated" with effect from 4/2014. In this regard, the registered person was required to claim input tax as per sub rule (3) of Rule 25 of Chapter-IV (apportionment of input tax) of the Sales Tax Rules, 2006 against the "exempt supply", whereas the registered person has violated the Rules and provisions of the law.

Further analysis of sales tax declarations of the registered person and cross matching of the data revealed that for the period January 2011 to December 2015, the total declared sales/value of supply of registered person excluding sales tax comes to the tune of Rs.7,533,712,254/- out of which 75% ie Rs.5,615,098,639/- comprises of sales made to un-registered persons. Moreover, a major buyer of the registered person as declared in the sales tax returns is Trading Corporation. The investigations of the agency have revealed that the said Trading Corporation was just created as a business concern on paper only and that too in the name of an employee of Paper Mills Ltd with a meagre capital of Rs.20,000/-,. The paper mill declared supply of taxable goods valuing Rs.232 million to Trading Corporation which subsequently declared supply of same goods without any value addition to the unregistered buyers meaning thereby that most of the declared sales to unregistered persons by the registered person are un-identifiable.

It was also noticed that while quantity of goods produced and subsequent quantity of supplies of said goods in a tax period remains almost the same but the consumption of electricity varies to a greater extent on the both accounts viz-a-viz (i) number of electricity units consumed for per metric ton of production and (ii) cost/value of electricity utilized for per metric ton of production, which is evident from record. The variation ranges from 1 percent to 64 percent which is unjustifiable. The part of electricity cost in production and supplies is much higher than the cost of other variables/raw materials for production. This is how M/s Premier Paper Mills Ltd had managed to under invoice/under declare the value of its taxable supply resulting in evasion of due sales tax.

Accordingly the legal action of searching the premises of the aforementioned business (the head office as well as the manufacturing premises), was, carried out and necessary records including Server, CPUs, laptops, private record documents, chequer books and record of Premier Trading Corporation (a dummy business premises of the aforementioned registered person) were resumed to proceed in investigation/inquiry in the case, directorate added.

6.      FBR revises organisational structure of IT wing

April 01, 2016

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has revised the organisational structure of the Information Technology (IT) wing of the FBR. According to a notification issued here on Thursday, IT Wing's functions have been customised and Second secretary (IT-I); Second secretary (IT) would deal with different IT related functions.

The job description of Aamar Javed, SST (IT-I) is that he would deal with all issues relating to FTO, courts etc in co-ordination with Pakistan revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) or other offices; all matters relating to TAGR; implementation of policy directions of IR-Policy Wing/ IR-Operation's Wing by PRAL and any other task assigned by the Member (IT)/ Chief (IT).

The job description of Kashif Younas, SST (IT) revealed that he would be responsible for processing of payments/ renewal of contracts with all existing vendors; preparation of Budget for IT Wing; hiring of support/ maintenance services for Data Centers; payments to PRAL and any other task assigned by the Member (IT)/ Chief (IT), it added.

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