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According to sources, there is no instruction to banks issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) regarding freezing accounts of those who have not obtained National Tax Number (NTN).
Earlier, some media reports caused the chaos saying that the banks had frozen numerous accounts that have large transactions without obtaining NTN.
However, without concrete evidence regarding concealment, the FBR does not give directives to the bank for freezing the bank accounts. There is a pre-defined procedure under the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
According to the sources, when the concealment of an identified person is detected, the field formation of the FBR issues notice for filing return or declare the source of income in case of the registered taxpayer.
At the moment, the FBR has imposed withholding tax on banking non-cash transactions for non-filers and on cash withdrawal for both filers and higher rate for non-filers.
In order to identify potential taxpayers, The FBR was striving to get access to banks’ online system. For a note, the FBR has authority to attain the access to banking data since 2013 but this issue was sub judice before higher courts.