Lahore: Bakeries under watch for tax evasion

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Jawwad Rizvi
AFTER detecting large-scale sales tax evasion in restaurants in posh areas, surveillance has been expanded to big bakeries of Lahore.

The Regional Taxpayers Unit (RTU) Lahore has initiated the surveillance to check discrepancies in the monthly returns filed by the restaurants.

In the initial surveillance, the Sales Tax department, which has been carrying it out, has found variations up to 30 to 75 per cent in the monthly sales tax returns filed by the restaurants owners.

The News has learnt that the department will recover the liabilities from the restaurants, which had evaded tax in the past.

The surveillance was launched after it was found that a number of restaurants are not correctly reporting their sales. It was launched on March 25 and in the first 10 days, the variation had been found. The News has learnt that large-scale variation has been found in the sales of a renowned restaurant situated in Tibbi City.

It has been learnt that at first, the RTU has decided to post staff at these restaurants, which will monitor their sales and would only be removed when these restaurants and clubs start making correct payment. For this purpose, the FBR has laid down broad parameters to select the non-compliant taxpayers.

This step would be welcomed by those taxpayers who faced difficulty in competing with those who were cheating.

Talking to The News, RTU Lahore Director General Shaukat Ali said that so far positive results had been found from the surveillance.

He said its results would enhance the tax collection. In some cases, the results show huge difference and in other, it is almost equal to the previously available data, he added. He said that the sales tax data from the surveillance would also be helpful in increasing the income tax and it would be reflected in the annual income tax returns of the restaurants owners.

He said the surveillance would continue for further data collection and the RTU would compare the surveillance data from the previous filed sales tax returns.

He pointed out that the inspection teams of the Sales Tax departments including collector sales tax and other senior officials were paying surprise visits to the deputed surveillance teams in order to keep the process transparent.

He further said that the RTU had planned to launch awareness campaign for the customers to demand an invoice or receipt indicating the sales tax registration number.

It will duly reward the customer whose invoice was found not accounted for by a restaurant.

Talking to The News, Collector Sales Tax Lahore Shafqat Mehmood, who is looking after the surveillance campaign, said accurate results of the surveillance would show after April 15 when the restaurants would file their monthly self-assessed returns.

The tax department will compare their self-assessed returns with their surveillance teams’ reports, he said.

The department will also recover the liabilities from the restaurants, which they evaded in the past on the results of surveillance reports, he added.

Shafqat said that the department had also deputed surveillance teams at the posh areas branches of three well-known bakeries of the city. These branches include Model Town, Gulberg, Defence, Cantonment and others.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=171360