The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received a total of 19,163,43 income tax returns and statements up to January 25, 2010 against 17,97,329 till January 25, 2009, reflecting an increase of 11,90,14. According to the FBR latest data compiled here on Friday, the board has received a total of 755,671 income tax returns from corporate sector, AOPs, salaried and non-salaried business entities up to January 25, 2010 against 642,777 returns in the same period last fiscal.
The income tax statements filed by importers, exporters, salary certificates, retailers having up to Rs 5 million turnover, retailers above Rs 5 million turnover, contractors/suppliers and other category of taxpayers stood at 1,160,672 till January 25, 2010 against 1,154,552 statements filed in the same period previous year.
Break-up of returns revealed that the board has received 16,281 income tax returns from the corporate sector up to January 25 2010 against 14,903 returns till January 25, 2009. Around 41,863 Association of Persons (AOPs) have filed returns during this period against 26,154 returns in the corresponding period last fiscal.
The salaried class submitted 114,495 income tax returns up to January 25 2010 against 119,759 returns up to January 25, 2009. This category of salaried taxpayers covered those having additional income. The FBR has received a total of 583,032 non-salaries or business returns during the period under review against 481,961 returns in the same period last fiscal.
The data of income tax statements showed a very disappointing picture within the category of retailers. Retailers having annual turnover above Rs 5 million have filed 581 statements till January 25, 2010 against 830 in the same period of previous year. The retailers having up to 5 million turnovers filed 13,332 statements against 18,272 in the corresponding period of last year. The FBR has received 18,828 salary certificates during this period against 20,745 in the same period last year.
A total of 1,053,708 employees have been indicated in the statements till January 25, 2010 against 1,055,954 till January 25, 2009. In case of importers, the FBR has received a total of 12,262 statements as compared to 11,510. A total of 8,473 exporters have filed statements against 8,050 statements. The contractors and suppliers have submitted 24,378 statements up to January 25 2010 against 24,030 up to January 25, 2009.
In terms of number of employees in the statement, Karachi received the major chunk as data shows that the FBR obtained 640,568 statement from the major business hub of the country. The data analysis showed that out of latest 1.9 million total received returns and statements by tax authorities till January 25, 2010, the major contributor in terms of filing statements stood at 1.053 million that belongs to salaried class.
Sources said "FBR has launched awareness campaign for pursuing the non-filers to come into tax net till January 25, 2010 and as a result the FBR received around 250,000 additional returns. Now the FBR will launch strict action against 600,000 non-filers who have obtained National Tax Number (NTN) but remained outside from the tax net. There are around 2.5 million NTN holders and the data shows that 1.9 million filed returns and statement and still 0.6 million are outside the tax net."
Sources said that the FBR issued 59,803 NTN during the first six months (July-Dec) period of 2009-10 who would be bound to file their returns by the next fiscal year 2010-11. However, the FBR's data shows that the statement of returns from contractors and suppliers stood at only 24,378 till January 25, 2010 against 24,039 statements in the same period of previous year 2009.