KARACHI: Pakistan Tax Bar Association while expressing concern over decrease in number of tax filers has asked the Chairman Federal Board of Revenue to revise the Active Taxpayers List for the year 2023.
In a joint letter written by the President PTBA Anwar Kashif Mumtaz and Mohammad Rehan Siddiqui it was stated that PTBA was depressed to see that the Active Taxpayers List 2022 shows that active tax filers were 5.7 million and Active Taxpayers List 2023 shows 3.35 million. There is a drastic decline in the number of tax filers and the low number of tax filers has negatively been perceived by the tax filers and other monitoring agencies, the letter said.
In their view there must be some misrepresentation which needs to be rectified and that as per information, there were a number of cases which have been filed late and some have been filed in the extended time after the due date and those are not being reflected in the Active Taxpayers List 2023. It is therefore suggested that this list may be revised.
If the said exercise will be conducted, we are confident that the numbers of tax filers would increase which would give the positive impact on the tax filers, monitoring agencies and for the government itself to make out the policies for the sustainability of the tax system in Pakistan, the letter added.