ISLAMABAD - The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started contacting the country's banks and financial institutions as part of an outreach programme to boost the filing of Income Tax returns.

As part of the initiative, a team of FBR's Facilitation and Taxpayers Education (FATE) Wing led by Member FATE Nausheen Javaid Amjad held an extensive meeting with Naeemuddin Khan, President of the Bank of Punjab (BoP), for seeking his assistance in sensitising the BoP officers and staff with taxable income on filing of income tax returns.

Nausheen told the BoP's president that FBR had decided to work closely with the large multinationals and corporations of the country to build a friendly interface with them and provide them with all assistance and facilitation in all areas of taxation. She said the large organisations had done exceedingly well in reporting the salaries paid and the taxes deducted at source from their employees, and an equal degree of attention was required from them to motivate their employees with taxable income to file their tax returns and fulfil an important national obligation.

Nausheen also briefed the BoP president on the range of benefits and advantages which the bank employees could reap after becoming filers, by paying significantly lower rate of taxes on multiple business and bank transactions She also offered the FBR's help and resources for conducting in-house facilitative training sessions and workshops in e-filing for the officers and staff of Bank of Punjab.

The Bank of Punjab president appreciated the FBR's initiative of walking up to the corporate world in what he described as an "appreciable display of empathy and responsiveness" towards the taxpayers. He also welcomed FBR's technical support and facilitation in filing for his bank's employees and assured full cooperation in ensuring maximum compliance and filing of tax returns by them.