Taxes are upon us

This year while filing my tax return, I found out that I had paid 30 percent more taxes (on my banking transactions, salaries, mobile bills, dividend income and utility bills) in advance than what I had to pay at the end of the year. I was once again due a refund, but the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) never gives refunds to individuals. Some reports suggest that almost 2.2 million Pakistanis filed their taxes, which is a small portion of the country’s total population. Considering that most of these 2.2 million tax filers already pay taxes through advance taxes charged on their banking, mobile and utility bills, this is a small number of people.

Why can’t the data for advance tax paid by each citizen be updated automatically in his/her tax accounts each month? Since all these transactions are made under individuals’ CNICs, therefore this task should be easy. This would make it easier for citizens to file their taxes and would also reduce the FBR’s workload. The organisation can then concentrate on collecting taxes from undocumented sectors dealing in gold, foreign currency, real-estate, mining and agriculture. Similarly, even though the provinces are responsible for collecting agriculture taxes, the federal government can calculate the estimated tax to be collected based on actual or previous year’s agriculture production data, and can then demand that the provinces pay these taxes or simply deduct an equivalent amount from the provincial budget.

Shahryar Khan Baseer

Peshawar