Umar dissatisfied with FBR'S tax widening drive.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is failing in its two key goals - broadening a narrow tax base and enhancing revenue collection, which has started displeasing Finance Minister Asad Umar who on Thursday sought an explanation for apparent breakdown of the tax machinery.

Umar expressed dissatisfaction over the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) performance in the tax broadening campaign and revenue collection in first four months of the current fiscal year, said sources in the FBR headquarters.

They said the minister rejected the excuses given by taxmen during a visit to the FBR headquarters before departing for China.

The PTI government has promised that it will double tax collection and widen the narrow tax base, which currently comprises only 1.4 million active taxpayers. As part of its campaign, the FBR has started sending notices to the non-filers of income tax returns.

But the government's drive to target the big fish has started backfiring. These notices have been issued by the Directorate General of Broadening the Tax Base on the basis of data provided by the FBR's Operations Wing.

Of the 373 notices sent in the first phase, about 145 could not be delivered due to wrong addresses, said the sources. So far, only 19 people have filed tax returns after receiving the notices.

The sources added that the finance minister was unhappy with the progress, but the FBR assured him of producing tangible results by the end of November.

The FBR is serving notices to the tax dodgers under Section 114 (4) and 116 of the Income Tax Ordinance. "These people have purchased properties of over Rs20 million, cars of 1,800cc or more engine capacity or have received rent to the tune of Rs10 million or higher in a year," said the FBR.

Different FBR wings were not effectively coordinating with each other and there were complaints about lack of automatic data sharing by the information technology wing of the authority, the sources said.

Umar visited the FBR headquarters a day after Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar boasted on Twitter that the government had entered the fourth phase of the drive against non-filers of income tax returns.

"Data relating to more than 2,500 cases of purchase of expensive...