The issue of exemption from withholding tax to consumers came under discussion during the meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication which met with Taj Mohammad Afridi in the chair.
The committee members observed that it is a serious issue whereby billions of rupees are being collected on account of WHT from cellular subscribers, even from those poor people of Pakistan who do not fall under the tax network and unfortunately the FBR has still no mechanism to analyse the data of taxes collected by Telcos, resultantly the FBR has failed to provide relief to the common man.
During the committee proceedings, the tax officials of FBR refused to entertain a proposal of the parliamentary panel on exemption from withholding tax deduction to persons not labile to file income tax returns, saying legislation is required to grant such kind of exemption to the consumers having income below taxable limit.
The committee in its last meeting had recommended FBR for establishment of mechanism for connectivity with the servers of the mobile phone operators for monitoring of withholding taxes.
The FBR officials revealed that there are some technical issues in the system and it is facing problems in uploading bulk of consumer data. About the status on the online withholding data sharing by telecom companies, the FBR officials said that FBR/PRAL has developed the utility which allows telcos to upload withholding data file on agreed format on both FTP and HTTP based web service.
The FBR/PRAL has also finished the task of data reading and populating the relevant data repository at FRB''''s end. The FBR/PRAL has communicated to all telcos the process of uploading withholding data files, the added.
A meeting was held in LTU Islamabad on 13th February, 2017 for the enforcement of above process and telcos agreed to upload their data. So far all telcos have not uploaded withholding tax data. Even the telcos, such as Mobilink, has uploaded the data that is not in the required format. The FBR and LTUs are in constant touch with the telcos for uploading of the data and communicate them if the data is uploaded in incorrect format. Once entire date is uploaded, the Large Taxpayers Unit would analyse and further action, if any, would be initiated. The committee gave three months time to FBR for finalising the arrangement.
The committee expressed serious concerns over suspension of mobile phone networks in Mohmand Agency, FATA, and suspension of internet as well as PTCL services in the area.
The PTA official responded that Ministry of Information Technology issued a policy directive, dated 26th December 2009, titled ''''Closure of Telecom Services due to National Security Concerns,'''' which authorises designated organisations to initiate closure requests. The PTA is the focal point to receive closure of services request from all concerned and issue necessary instructions for implementation through concerned operators.
In pursuance to the instruction of Ministry of Interior (MoI), only internet/wireless data services 3rd generation (3G)/4th generation (4G)/general packet radio service (GPRS) of cellular mobile operators (CMOs) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) are suspended in entire FATA to deny this facility to the terrorists since 14th June, 2016 till further orders. Furthermore, on the instructions of army, complete mobile services of CMOs operating in Mohmand Agency have been suspended since 15th March, 2017 due to an ongoing military operation.
Taj Afridi said that if phone services are suspended in the area due to security concerns, why not services were suspended on Line of Control and Wagah border.
PTA chairman Ismail Shah said that the cross-border signal issue has been raised with Afghanistan through Foreign Office. He further said that jammers are not the solution to the problem. The committee directed secretary interior and secretary defence to brief the committee on the matter in the next meeting.
The committee was further briefed on the franchisee issue of Warid/Mobilink. Ismail Shah said that two meetings were held on the issue and the matter is likely to be resolved in the meeting to be held on April 19.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017