According to a circular issued by Cabinet Division here on Thursday, Prime Minister Abbasi has taken a serious view of the trend of non-filing of income tax returns on the part of civil servants who are earning taxable income and not filing their tax returns.
The Prime Minister has, therefore, directed that all secretaries of the ministries/divisions may issue directions to all officers working in their ministries/divisions to ensure that every officer earning taxable income must file his/her income tax return.
The Prime Minister has further directed that the secretaries may consider application of measures such as linking filing of returns with honoraria/reward for their employees, if initial directions do not yield results. The matter has been examined in consultation with the chairman FBR and it has been resolved that all secretaries/additional secretaries incharge/heads of attached departments/autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies are requested to provide list of all officers in BS-17 and above, along with their CNICs, within seven days of the receipt of this letter to Federal Board of Revenue, so that their status of filing of returns may be confirmed.
Further instructions and assistance as to how returns are to be e-filed in respect of officers who are non-filers (as per the record of Federal Board of Revenue) shall be communicated by FBR direct to concerned ministries/divisions/officers once the said information is received, it said.
A report on the action taken by the ministries/divisions concerned as well as FBR may also be submitted to the Cabinet Division, for onward submission to the Prime Minister's Office on monthly basis. First report may be submitted by January 15, 2018, the Cabinet Division circular added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017