NBR sets target to net in 0.2m taxpayers by Dec

Doulot Akter Mala | Published: March 16, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has set a target to net in around 200,000 or 0.2 million new taxpayers by December this year by conducting an external survey across the country.
The board was casting the tax net wider in a bid to make up for the possible revenue loss to be caused by a cut in corporate tax rates in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year (FY), tax officials said.
Recently the NBR chief hinted at the cut in corporate tax rates in the budget for the FY 2014-15.
Officials said the targeted new taxpayers would be added to the existing list of taxpayers in the current calendar year.
A senior revenue board official said the survey team would focus on new taxpayers in both cities and district towns, who have taxable incomes.
"Survey team will not net in the persons or businesses that will submit nil returns, as the taxmen aim to increase income tax collection through the survey," he said.
The survey would focus on identifying the actual taxpayers instead of showing any inflated number of taxpayers, he added.
The survey and inspection wing of the NBR has drawn up a five-year plan to raise the number of taxpayers to 800,000 by the calendar year 2017.
The plan has also been shared with the government high-ups for future projection of economic trends.
As part of the plan the NBR found about 166,000 new taxpayers in 2013. Of the new taxpayers, about 75,000 opened their tax files with different tax offices across the country. Of them, 74.27 per cent were businessmen and 21.55 per cent household owners.
Responding to a query, NBR member for survey and inspection Md Alauddin said the new taxpayer survey suffered a blow last year due to the political turmoil as business activity was almost stalled in the volatile situation.
"We hope the survey will run smoothly this year," he said. Â
Taxmen focused on the survey to expand the tax net and offset the possible loss that might arise out of a cut in corporate tax rates, he added.
Officials said a number of people, having taxable incomes, were yet to come under the tax net.
In 2013 the board found around 70 per cent of the new taxpayers businessmen who were running business without any Taxpayer's Identification Number (TIN).
The survey team found about 109,865 taxpayers businessmen out of 166,000.
It also identified about 41,526 taxpayers household owners among the surveyed people.