Majority of officers of government departments of Faisalabad Division have so far not filed their income tax returns.
Only 40% of government officials and employees have submitted their returns, while the remaining 60% are still on the list of non-filers. The deadline for filing income tax returns is October 15. In this regard, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officials have warned of action against non-filer government employees after the deadline. It has directed all government officials whose income is taxable to become filers.
The deadline for all government officials to file their income tax returns is October 15. However, there are more than 200,000 officers and employees in various government departments in the four districts of Faisalabad, Toba Tax Singh, Jhang and Chiniot whose income is taxable but so far, only about 80,000 of these government officials and employees have filed their income tax returns. The remaining 120,000 have not filed their income tax returns and are still on the list of non-filers.
According to sources, most of the officers and employees of government departments possess assets beyond their income and fear being caught for corruption, which is why they are not interested in becoming a filer. More than 10,000 officers and employees of Police, Traffic Police and Patrol Police are eligible to become filer but only 4,000 officers and employees have submitted their income tax returns. While 6,000 still prefer to remain non-filers – the income of 11,000 officers, principals and teachers of the school department’s school wing is taxable but only 6,000 of them have submitted their returns while the remaining 5,000 are still non-filers.
