The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Friday issued the Tax Directory of all taxpayers for the Tax Year 2016, revealing that the number of taxpayers has been increased to 1,216,614 for Tax Year 2016 as compared to 1,074,418 for Tax Year 2015, reflecting an increase of 142,196 taxpayers. Under the Tax Directory, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that in line with the government's tradition of the last three years, he has presented the Tax Directory of all taxpayers for the Tax Year 2016, prepared by the Federal Board of Revenue.

The Tax Directory comprises three sections, ie, corporations, association of persons (AoPs) and individuals listed in alphabetical order. The initiatives taken by the government to broaden the tax base are yielding the desired results due to which the total number of taxpayers who have filed their returns and included in this directory has increased to 1,216,614.

The Tax Directory is a manifestation of the government's commitment to provide access to information to the general public and should help in creating public awareness, motivation and transparency. "I commend the chairman, officers and staff of the FBR for their contribution in the publication of this directory," Ishaq Dar added.

The directory has been tabulated from returns filed manually and electronically till August 10, 2017. Manually filed returns have been entered into the system. There may be some discrepancies at the level of filing or data entry. Moreover, a considerable number of manually filed returns could not be entered into the system despite best efforts due to missing mandatory identifiers on the returns, the FBR added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017