FBR mulls raising penalties against tax-law violations
Monday June 01, 2020
Islamabad: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is considering raising the penalties charged for violations of the general provisions of the country’s income tax laws — a news source reported. Read: FBR introduces online tax refund system According to the details available, the FBR’s Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi had recently submitted this proposal for the budget 2020-21. According to the proposal, the fines should be increased from the current amount of PKR 5,000, to up to PKR 50,000. The amendment is set to be made in Section 182 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. The penal amount has been suggested for those provisions that do not have set penalties of their own under the ordinance. The rationale behind the proposal is that the amount is too low to compel the general public to comply with, or to avoid violating provisions of the tax law — making it necessary for the fines to be raised. Read: FBR proposes tax on foreign currency accounts The penalty for withholding agents not collecting withholding taxes was also raised from PKR 25,000 to PKR 40,000 earlier. Now the LTU has recommended raising this amount to PKR 70,000.
