NO NEW DISCRETIONARY POWERS GIVEN TO COMMISSIONERS THROUGH SRO 608(I)/2014 - FBR CLARIFIES

July 04, 2014

The news item captioned “FBR opens doors to corruption” published in a section of the press today on 04th of July, 2014 is not factually correct. Referring to SRO 608(I)/2014 dated 26.06.2014, it has been wrongly stated that Commissioners of Inland Revenue have been given extra discretionary powers.

The actual facts are that in accordance with the government’s policy to phase out the SRO regime, many concessions in existing SROs were either withdrawn or reduced in the Budget 2014-15. However, a limited number of concessions were continued due to their essential or socially sensitive nature, by way of transposition into the Fifth or Sixth Schedules to the Sales Tax Act, 1990. Since SRO 670(I)/2013 dated 18.07.2013 granted conditional zero-rating on sensitive items like milk, milk products, stationery items and bicycles, the government decided to continue the concession. This was done by transposing the Table of the SRO into the Fifth Schedule to the Sales Tax Act, 1990, while the conditions for availing zero-rating were incorporated into the Sales Tax Special Procedure Rules, 2007 through SRO 608(I)/2014.

It is therefore, clarified that no new discretionary powers have been granted to the Commissioners through SRO 608(I)/2014, but only the procedure and conditions already existing in SRO 670(I)/2013 were transposed into the Sales Tax Special Procedure Rules, 2007 through SRO 608(I)/2014.

Shahid Hussain Asad

Member (Policy-IR) / Official Spokesperson, FBR

 

NO NEW DISCRETIONARY POWERS GIVEN TO COMMISSIONERS THROUGH SRO 608(I)/2014 - FBR CLARIFIES

Collection of duties, taxes on 28th, 29th and 30th June, 2014

June 26, 2014

In order to facilitate the taxpayers in depositing their duties and taxes during the last few days of the current financial year, the State Bank of Pakistan, on request of FBR has decided to keep authorized branches of State Bank of Pakistan, National Bank of Pakistan, Commercial Banks and National Institute of Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) open for extended hours.

According to details, State Bank of Pakistan branches would remain open on 30th of June 2014 till 10:00pm. National Bank of Pakistan branches would remain open till 8:00pm on 28th and 29th June for collection of FBR taxes/duties and till 10:00 for cheque collection and 12:00 midnight for cash counters on 30th June 2014 (Monday) for government receipts and payments. Similarly, designated branches of Commercial Banks would remain open on 28th June 2014 (normal working hours) and 30th June 2014 until 10:00pm. NIFT will also remain available to collect and sort the clearing instruments deposited on 28th & 29th June 2014 from NBP. Two special clearings on Monday 30th June 2014 at 3:00pm and 10:00pm respectively have also been arranged besides normal clearings.

Besides the opening for extended hours of banks, arrangements have also been made to facilitate taxpayers in payment of Taxes / Duties and fulfill their national obligation. In this regard FBR has directed all its field formations to remain open on 28th and 29th June 2014 until 8:00pm and on 30th June 2014 until 12:00 midnight.

Shahid Hussain Asad

Official Spokesperson, FBR

Collection of duties, taxes on 28th, 29th and 30th June, 2014