Penalty imposed on Inland Revenue, Pakistan Customs officers for not filing income tax returns

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday imposed penalty on officers of Inland Revenue and Pakistan Customs for not filing income tax returns for the tax year 2013 and has given opportunity to file their returns by June 16, 2014 otherwise their performance allowance will be discontinued without further notice.
In a letter issued to all FBR headquarters officers, director generals, chief commissioners of Inland Revenue, chief collectors and collectors, the tax authority said that a large number of officers of FBR had not yet filed their income tax returns for the tax year 2013.
“The competent authority has taken a serious view of the situation and has directed that tax returns may be filed all defaulting officers by June 16, 2014 along with penalty to be calculated as per provisions of Section 182 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001,” the letter said.
It further said: “The officers who fail to file their return of income by the aforementioned date are informed that their performance allowance will be discontinued without any further notice.”
The letter directed all chief commissioners of Inland Revenue, director generals, chief collectors and collectors to circulate the copy of the letter to the officers working under their administrative control and must furnish a report to FBR on the compliance of the direction within three days at the end of the stipulated date.
Previously, May 24, 2014 as the last date was given to the officers of Inland Revenue and Pakistan Customs Services. However, the officers are still non-compliant to FBR directives leaving a big question that if the officers of FBR are not filing their returns then how could they able to convince the large segment of individuals/companies that are not in the tax net to file their returns.
In the list of non-filers issued last week contained names of senior officers of FBR. The sources said that about 1090 officers were identified as non-filers as the total strength of officers in the FBR is about 1600. The list also contained the name of Member Customs, FBR management, Chief Commissioner RTO-II Karachi etc.