ISLAMABAD: After a shortfall of Rs 127 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal year, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started action against registered tax payers who did not file their returns in the current year. Sources told this scribe that the FBR Karachi team had raided an MS Homes company, which belongs to a leading builder Mohsin Abu Bakar Sheikhani Chairman of the Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD).
The sources said that the main reason of the raid on MS Homes was that the owner Mohsin Sheikhani did not file his return in the current fiscal year. The FBR team not only served a notice to him but also took into custody some important files from his office. “Sheikhani’s name is also included in the Bahamas leaks”, the source added.
Mohsin, while talking to Daily Times, admitted that an FBR team has visited his office on Thursday but said they did not take any record with them. “I am filing tax return on a regular basis for many years,” he said. Sources said that the tax department has given full powers to field officers (FOs) in recent meetings in order to recover the Rs 127 billion shortfall in revenue collection. The FOs are not only raiding different business tycoons’ workplaces but freezing their banks accounts too.
FBR had frozen one of the company’s bank accounts erroneously, but when the owners complained to the high officials of government then the FBR was forced to defreeze the account. It is worth mentioning here that only 732,341 people have filed their tax returns. The government had fixed the target of Rs 1.2 million till the date of 15 December 2016. The numbers was even less than last year’s Rs 1.074 million. Calls to the spokesperson of FBR Dr Iqbal were not answered.
