In another twist to the tale, new allegations have surfaced in the scrutiny of nomination papers as some cases of candidates have not been forwarded to the FBR for verification of tax details.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday sent 3,000 nomination papers to the FBR for verification of tax details. However, a local newspaper pointed out that if another big chunk was sent again on Friday, then scrutiny of all these might not be done in an effective manner because the FBR requires 24 hours to return the verified information to the ECP.
The sources said that the ECP sent out nomination papers for contesting candidates of NA-97 Gujranwala for verification of tax details to the FBR but the nomination papers of Anwar Bhinder were missing from the lot.
In another constituency, NA-118, the ECP has not sent the nomination papers of Asif Hashmi for verification of tax details. The FBR’s verification cell is facing difficulties in sending back the verified details of cases where the candidates have filed manual returns.
For example, the supporters of Chaudrys of Gujrat had to face difficulty in front of the RO in Gujrat to verify tax details of Ch Pervez Elahi as he had filed manual tax return in Lahore for one out of three years. So they had to rush to the FBR for verification to get through the scrutiny process.
The ECP has so far sent 19,415 nomination papers to the FBR of which over 17,200 have been verified. The FBR found that 8,675 candidates do not possess the National Tax Number (NTN). “It is like conquering the Mount Everest barefoot,” said an official adding that the major responsibility lies on the shoulders of Returning Officers (ROs) to raise relevant questions to disqualify tax defaulters.
In the nomination papers, the ECP only asked the FBR to verify whether the contesting candidates had paid taxes in the last three years or not. But the ROs can raise relevant questions if they understand the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. They can ask when the candidates filed their returns and wealth statements and if they did not file returns on time, whether they paid penalty surcharge or not.
Media reports had shown that politicians were manipulating the tax data, as the head of a religio-political party in Peshawar was found uploading three years’ returns on a single day on March 23, 2013 and did not file wealth statement.
The Section 182 of the Income Tax Ordinance states that where any person fails to furnish a return of income tax or a statement as required under Section 115 or wealth reconciliation statement or statement under Section 165 within the due date, such person shall pay a penalty to 0.1 percent of the tax payable for each day of default subject to a minimum penalty of five thousand rupees and maximum penalty of 25 percent of the tax payable in respect of that year.
“There is no need of adjudication in such cases of default for if any candidate has not filed tax return on time he or she should be penalised by imposing default surcharge on immediate basis,” said FBR officials and added that it could generate handsome amount at a time when the tax machinery was facing massive revenue shortfall in the current financial year.
