PTA Warning to PTCL Followed by Bad Scene with FBR

Ahmed Ali

As PTA is flexing its muscles to recover its unpaid fees from PTCL on different accounts yet, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has caught it on the non-payment of outstanding taxes of Rs 3.6 billion.

Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU), Islamabad has attached all bank accounts of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) which owed Rs.3.6 billion to the exchequer on account of Income Tax.

The PTA was served with recovery notice under Section 138(10) of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, to deposit the outstanding liabilities by 28th of May 2012 which it failed to comply within the deadline.

It is stark contrast that PTA has served notices to PTCL recently for paying its Rs 60 million due fees within fee days however, it failed to make the payment on the account of taxes to FBR primarily from the salaries of the staff.

FBR has been merciless to leave any multinational and semi-judicial organization for not paying outstanding taxes, as it took utmost effort to recover revenues in the possible areas.

Accordingly, the tax authority did not only attached the bank account of PTA to recover its taxes but also formed committee to collect its receivables for overall tax collection from mobile operators, wireless local loop (WLL) operators, Long Distance & International (LDI) operators, land line (LL) operators and Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.