I am being served tax notices without officials actually looking at my submitted tax returns
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s economy is weak and anaemic due to the siphoning syndrome. As paper-filed income tax returns are received by clerks, they are piled on the floor without any supervision by tax officers. Then, they are siphoned off into a ‘Black Hole’ instead of being computerised.
I have received four notices from Zone II, Unit II, Regional Tax Office, Islamabad. The first inquired as to why I had not filed my tax return for the tax year 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 and I had to send their copies again. The second and third notices claimed I had withdrawn a huge sum of money from my bank account in the tax year 2013 and should explain why. The explanation was not read and a reminder sent. A fourth notice arrived claiming the same.
Each notice states, “Subject: Show cause notice U/S 122(9) & 122(5) read with section 122(1) of the income tax ordinance 2001 for tax year 2014”. The last notice was delivered by hand, giving me 18 hours within which to reply. The assistant commissioner then came on the phone and asked for a copy of my tax return for 2013, the record of which had been siphoned off on the first day of its submission.
I am being served tax notices without officials actually looking at my submitted tax returns. One wonders how an ordinance for tax year 2014 was being applied to the tax year 2013. The money thus haphazardly collected by the FBR from taxpayers is siphoned off via models, artists, casinos, boats and the hundi system to offshore accounts on foreign lands. As the kitty shrinks, the finance minister begs the IMF for loans. Once acquired, the siphoning starts again.
Dr Zarina Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2016.
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