ISLAMABAD: Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi has advised industrial and commercial consumers of gas and electricity to get registered with sales tax authorities, as a crackdown on unregistered consumers will be initiated from July 01, 2019.

[the_ad id=”32940″]Addressing a press conference, he said that currently there were around 341,174 industrial electricity connection and 7000 industrial gas connections, however compared to this the sales tax registration of industry was just 38,937, which he said was a huge gap.

“It is my request to all industrial consumers to take advantage of the scheme before June 30 and may be it (the scheme) do not remain in the same shape after July 1st,” so the people using industrial utility connections should take advantage, the Chairman added.

He said that there were possibilities that these industrial consumer connections might include some connections that come under cotton industry under law, however, added that there was dire need to check this huge difference.

“It would be our desire that under the special clause placed in Asset Declaration Scheme, the industries falling in the category pay two percent to clear past liabilities,” the chairman added.

He said that after July 1st, the FBR would make necessary legislation to get these industries and manufacturers registered and would also take action.

He urged the industrialists and manufacturers to take advantage of the Asset Declaration Scheme and clear their past sales tax liabilities by paying just two percent tax till June 30, 2019 or the law would take its due course after the expiry of the data.

“A special clause has been included in the Asset Declaration Scheme, which was not included in it earlier, which is that if anybody is having sales tax liability he or she may clear these by paying just two percent tax,” Zaidi added.

He urged the media to sensitize people on the issue so that those avoiding to clear their past sales tax liabilities might realize this gap and get registered with FBR by taking advantage of the Asset Declaration Scheme.

He said that the FBR would try its best to make it voluntary and do not indulge in harassment, as it wanted to create environment for the businesses.

To a question, the FBR Chairman said that there were around 3.1 million commercial consumers, however added that the strategy on how to get the unregistered consumers to get registered with FBR would be shared with media.

To another questions, the Chairman FBR said that there were over one hundred thousand companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), however just 50,000 were filing their returns.

He said that it was high time for those having industrial connections to get registered with FBR and take benefit of the Tax Declaration Scheme.