CM Murad accuses FBR of double taxation

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has accused the Federal Board of Revenue of double taxation after the tax authorities raised a demand of Rs4.32 billion income tax and withholding tax on goods against various departments of the Sindh government.

This, he said, while presiding over a meeting today here at the CM House to decide the matter pertaining to FBR, RTO-III, Karachi that has raised a demand of thousands of rupees against various Sindh government departments/offices on account of payment of various taxes.

Quoting the case of jute bags for food department, the chief minister said that the FBR has issued notices for recovery of RS260.4 million Income Tax with regard to purchase of jute bags, PP bags and tarpaulin during tax year, 2010-11 to 2015-16.

He said that as a matter of fact the Jute industry is exempted from Income Tax according to a SRO issued by the federal government. He said that as regards, the PP bags etc. the Accountant General Sindh, at the time of payments had already deducted the tax. “This is a double taxation against the Sindh government,” he noted.

The finance department officers told the chief minister that the principal amount of Income Tax is Rs435.277 million and Rs1.33 million is penalty while Rs3.89 billion is Withholding Tax on goods.

During the scrutiny and deliberation in the meeting it was surfaced that the demand raised by FBR was on the basis of total budgetary allocation and blanked calculations without considering real time transactions and at-source deduction of the taxes by the office of the AG Sindh.

The chief minister after going through the FBR orders said that the tax officers have passed orders ex-parte without hearing the concerned department. He was informed by different departments that in some cases, orders-in-original, show cause notices and hearing notices were not delivered to the relevant departments due to which the period provided to lodge appeals has become barred by time limitation and therefore they had requested for condonation so that they could lodge appeal to offer their defense at the relevant appellant forum.

Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon told the chief minister that he had held a meeting with Chief Commissioner and Commissioner RTO-III on April 19, 2018 wherein the finance department was assigned to complete the reconciliation task with the FBR and other stake-holders. Therefore, he has directed all the departments and AG Sindh to be on board to complete the reconciliation task.

The chief minister was informed that on cross verification, the tentative figures given by the AG Sindh indicated that out of total demand of Rs4.328 billion and amount of Rs645.522 million against Income Tax and Rs20.629 million against GST on goods have been deducted at-source by AG Sindh leaving behind a disputed amount of Rs3.662 billion against GST on goods which required reconciliation.

The finance department has approached chief commissioner, FBR for withdrawing attachment orders and simultaneously contacted State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and National Bank of Pakistan for not entertaining such attachments made by it.

Shah pointed out a letter of SBP to the NBP president dated August 30,2017, which reads as “Under the agency agreement executed between State Bank of Pakistan and National Bank of Pakistan, the NBP is authorized to act as collecting agent of State Bank of Pakistan. NBP is the sole banker. Furthermore, the funds lying in the government banking accounts are part of their consolidated account, out of which money can be withdrawn after due process of appropriation.”

The letter further reads as “NBP thus has no authority to appropriate the receipts it is holding on SBP account pursuance of the notice issued by the taxation authorities. It is therefore, requested that all concerned in NBP may be directed not to make any appropriation of money held on principal account.”

The chief minister said that the NBP is not authorized to appropriate amount from Sindh government account. He added that he would talk to federal finance minister to direct the FBR to attachment orders. “We would take strict action if the amount is withdrawn from the Sindh government accounts,” he warned.

The chief minister directed the chief secretary to provide services of Sindh Revenue Board Tax Consultants to all the provincial governments departments so that they can deal such cases. There is also a need of capacity building of concerned provincial department officers who deal AG Sindh and FBR matters. He constituted a committee comprising SRB Consultant Mushatq Kazmi, Secretary Local Government Ramzan Awan and Special Secretary Finance Shohab to make necessary documentation and reconcile the claims made by the FBR.