FBR ordered move after civic agency failed to clear its tax dues.
After the power company, the taxman has come to take what is his from the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) froze the civic agency’s bank accounts after it failed to pay outstanding capital value tax and other taxes.
A CDA finance wing official said the accounts frozen on the FBR Islamabad Regional Taxpayers Unit’s (RTU) orders include the civic agency’s main salary account.
The CDA finance member did not respond for comment despite several phone calls.
“The CDA was served with multiple recovery notices, but failed to deposit the outstanding amount,” said an official of FBR.
After getting no response from the civic agency, the Islamabad RTU chief commissioner ordered that the accounts be frozen.
With the bank accounts inaccessible, the authority has been facing embarrassment as cheques it had issued have been dishonoured for the past few days.
The authority faced a similar situation in 2013, when the FBR sent the CDA a bill for Rs525 million on June 26, 2013, and gave the civic agency until June 30, 2013 to deposit at least Rs280 million. When the CDA failed to do so, its accounts were frozen.
A CDA finance wing official said the authority would hold negotiations with the tax authority and quickly reach a settlement. He expressed hope that the accounts would be accessible before July 1 to avoid delays in the release of the monthly salaries of nearly 15,000 employees of the authority. Last year’s tax debacle led to a seven-day delay in the payment of staff salaries.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2014.
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