Double rates of taxes: AJK tax officials approach FBR

Tax authorities of the Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) have approached the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for resolving taxation issues of taxpayers, registered with the AJK’s Board of Revenue, who have to pay double rates of taxes while clearance of their taxable transactions within the territory of Pakistan.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that AJ&K Council is facing problems in clearance of their taxable transactions within the territory of Pakistan. Due to non-existence of Active Taxpayer List of AJ&K on FBR database, the taxpayers of AJ&K are forced to pay higher rate taxation. The FBR’s Active Taxpayers filing returns have to pay normal rate of taxes as compared to double rates of withholding taxes on the non-filers, whose data is not available on the FBR’s Active Taxpayer List. The FBR uses its own Active Taxpayer List as per return filing database. However, the data of Active Taxpayer List of AJ&K is not available with the FBR’s central database. Taxpayers registered with the AJK government and present on the Active Taxpayer List of AJK, but not available on the FBR’s Active Taxpayer List.

The issue has been taken up by Waseem Altaf Member AJ&K Council Board of Revenue/Commissioner Inland Revenue with the FBR Member (Information Technology) FBR on the Active taxpayer list (ATL) of Inland Revenue Department, Council Board of Revenue.

According to the AJK tax department, reference to the discussion made in the meeting presided by FBR Member (Operations) IR. In this regard, it is intimated that as per discussion, The AJK government is forwarding the matter to FBR with the request that the matter may be resolved by fulfilling all legal and codal formalities.

The taxpayers of AJ&K duly registered on the NTN-Roll of Department of Inland Revenue / Council Board of Revenue, AJ&K Council are experiencing problems in clearance of their taxable transactions within the territory of Pakistan. Due to non-existence of Active Taxpayer List of AJ&K on FBR database, the taxpayers of AJ&K are forced for higher rate taxation. The same is available on the official web-site of the AJ&K Council Board of Revenue ie www.ajkird.gov.pk., Member AJ&K Council Board of Revenue/Commissioner Inland Revenue said.

It is once again requested that the matter may kindly be resolved on priority basis, so that discrimination faced by the AJ&K taxpayers may be addressed, he added.