FBR serves notices on cricket stars; media persons, parliamentarians also on list | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

FBR serves notices on cricket stars; media persons, parliamentarians also on list

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started serving notices to renowned public figures including parliamentarians, generals, judges, lawyers, sport stars, artists, journalists, bureaucrats and doctors for evading taxes and concealing their income, official sources said on Monday.

The FBR has identified 10 categories of such “Prominent Pakistanis”, who remain recognized figures in the public life, they said. “The objective of this initiative is to ensure tax compliance from those who make huge money, but their tax contribution remains little,” FBR’s Director General for Intelligence and Investigation wing, Ansar Javed told The News.

The campaign has been launched from cricketers — as done in India – to ensure maximum impact, he added. There are four wealthy cricketers, who do not even have National Tax Number (NTN), he said.

“In the identified 10 categories every one enjoying reputation will be served notices as FBR conducted in-depth tax analysis and then sent notices after well thought out strategy and homework,” a senior official of the FBR confirmed to The News here on Monday.

The 22 cricketers who have been served tax notices include stars like Pakistan team captain Misbah-ul Haq, Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Taufeeq Omer, Azhar Ali, sources said.

The FBR is also sending notices to Parliamentarians and the first one issued to the lawmaker representing NA-01, said Javed. The notices will be served in sequence to avoid complains of victimization from any side, he added.

In the second phase, notices will be sent to renowned TV anchors and subsequently all the remaining categories will be covered. “We have conducted detailed tax analysis before sending notices,” he said. The notices are being dispatched only after processing data of these public figures, he added.

Meanwhile, the FBR has been making efforts for to meet the tax collection target Rs.1952 billion for outgoing fiscal year.Chairman FBR Mumtaz Haider Rizvi said that the collection figure of Rs.1805 billion has been surpassed, while the FBR netted Rs.21 billion alone on Monday (June 25, 2012). “We are making all out efforts to go close to the desired target by end June 2012,” he added.

The News