KARACHI: The number of income tax return filers has surged to 1.08 million, suggests the latest Active Taxpayers List (ATL) released by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Appearance of taxpayers name in ATL is mandatory for availing reduced rates of withholding tax applicable under various heads.

In order increase the number of taxpayers the government in 2013 years back introduced different rates of withholding tax rates and imposed higher rates on non-filers.[the_ad id=”31605″]In the budget 2015/2016, the government imposed withholding tax only on non-filers by introducing Section 236 P under which the withholding tax imposed on non-cash banking transactions above Rs50,000 per day.

The total registered taxpayers are 3.6 million in the country but less than a million are filing their returns.

The FBR is aiming 1.8 million returns this year through monitoring of transactions in various heads.