Submission of tax return to be connected to more services' provision

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has taken a move to put more emphasis on ensuring submission of PSR (proof of submission of income tax return) in related fields aiming to expand tax net as well as enhance revenue collection, reports UNB.
NBR chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan has recently held a meeting in this regard where he asked the officials to be more active in this matter.
The proof of submission of income tax return (PSR) is now mandatory for 43 Services to execute the decision of the NBR and collect the government treasury.
According to the meeting the NBR chairman asked the field level officials to ensure the submission of PSR in related services.
Recently, Md Abdur Rahman Khan while briefing reporters said that if the field administration could be utilised properly, it would be beneficial for the revenue board to expand its tax net and tax collection.
In this connection, he said that for any construction of a building under Rajuk, CDA, KDA, RDA and others, submission of PSR is mandatory.
"We could send inspectors there to see whether the related authorities are following the rules properly or not," he said.
The NBR chief mentioned that if the related authorities are not following the rules, the NBR will create awareness among them.
"After that we will send our team there to convince them, and at last we will implement the related laws which would be monetary fine to make it mandatory," he said.
He hoped that if the submission of PSR is maintained in every enlisted services followed properly, it would be beneficial to increase the TIN holders and income tax return submission numbers.
He also said that there is an allegation that the tax net of the country is too small with a small amount of tax collection.
"If we can ensure the submission of the PSR it would also help us to put pressure on regular taxpayers also," he said.
The NBR chairman said that with the increased tax net it would be helpful for his organisation to provide relief for the other regular taxpayers.
Currently the tax-to-GDP ratio is just 7.3 percent in the country, whereas it stands at 12 percent in India, 17.5 percent in Nepal, 12.3 percent in Bhutan, and 7.5 percent in Pakistan.
Only 5.2 percent of the population registered as taxpayers, compared to 23.08 percent in India.
At present the number of e-TIN registered taxpayers has surpassed 1 crore. Until April of last fiscal year, NBR received 41 lakhs tax returns from taxpayers, mainly individuals, which was 27 percent higher than that of the same period in fiscal year 2023-24.
At present income tax contributes about 33 percent of the total revenue collected by the National Board of Revenue. The average growth in income tax collection is more than 16 percent.