Cellular mobile operators evading roughly Rs400b in taxes: NAB chief
Javed Iqbal says telcos are partially responsible for Pakistan’s debt
Javed Iqbal says telcos are partially responsible for Pakistan’s debt. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI:
Telecom operators are allegedly evading taxes worth Rs400 billion every year, said National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Javed Iqbal.
He said this while chairing a meeting held to assess the performance of all regional NAB bureaus. Expressing content on the performance of the past three months, he said that NAB will work diligently from now on.
However, he maintained that no inquiry would be conducted outside the rules and regulations. He asked NAB officials to study the 173 decisions given by the Supreme Court regarding NAB and work on them.
The NAB chairman said that at this stage Pakistan owes $84 billion and the main reasons for this are corruption and tax theft. He also said that mobile companies that withheld an estimated amount of Rs400 billion are responsible for this situation.
Iqbal’s statement puts a question mark over Pakistan’s ability to go after tax theft and ensure recovery.
In a disclosure made to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance a few months ago, it was revealed that the FBR till recently did not have the capacity to analyse transaction-wise data of withholding taxes collected by telecommunication companies and was blindly trusting their numbers.
A recent report of the World Bank has put the value of tax evasion in Pakistan at around Rs3.4 trillion, equal to last fiscal year’s total tax collection. In the previous fiscal year, the FBR’s tax-to-GDP ratio marginally slipped to 10.6%.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2018.
Telecom operators are allegedly evading taxes worth Rs400 billion every year, said National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Javed Iqbal.
He said this while chairing a meeting held to assess the performance of all regional NAB bureaus. Expressing content on the performance of the past three months, he said that NAB will work diligently from now on.
However, he maintained that no inquiry would be conducted outside the rules and regulations. He asked NAB officials to study the 173 decisions given by the Supreme Court regarding NAB and work on them.
The NAB chairman said that at this stage Pakistan owes $84 billion and the main reasons for this are corruption and tax theft. He also said that mobile companies that withheld an estimated amount of Rs400 billion are responsible for this situation.
Iqbal’s statement puts a question mark over Pakistan’s ability to go after tax theft and ensure recovery.
In a disclosure made to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance a few months ago, it was revealed that the FBR till recently did not have the capacity to analyse transaction-wise data of withholding taxes collected by telecommunication companies and was blindly trusting their numbers.
A recent report of the World Bank has put the value of tax evasion in Pakistan at around Rs3.4 trillion, equal to last fiscal year’s total tax collection. In the previous fiscal year, the FBR’s tax-to-GDP ratio marginally slipped to 10.6%.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2018.