The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) served nearly 13 million tax notices to non-filers in three years but just one out of every ten of them cared to respond, showing weakened writ of the tax machinery and also its highhandedness, reported Express Tribune.
From fiscal year 2018-19 to 2020-21, the FBR served 12.8 million tax notices to non-filers of the income tax returns, the FBR informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Wednesday.
However, only 1.31 million people filed their returns, showing compliance level of just 10.3% as against total notices served in three years. The FBR had raised Rs64.3 billion tax demand in these 12.8 million cases. However, it could recover just Rs2.6 billion, which was a mere 4% of the tax demand.
Headed by Senator Talha Mehmood of the JUI-F, the standing committee expressed serious reservations on sending nearly 13 million tax notices. It termed the FBR’s drive as an attempt to harass taxpayers and mint money from them.
