ISLAMABAD: The number of businessmen who did not pay a single penny in GST despite being on the tax list during the current financial year's 11 months (July-May) has risen to 22,000.

A total of 156,000 businessmen are registered with the CBR, and the nil-payees figure is up to 14 per cent, while 7000 are those who partially paid their tax.

Detailing how they planned to get these registered persons pay up, senior tax officials said that half of the registered businessmen showed delinquency of some nature during the current financial year, as they either short-paid, late-paid or even did not file tax return at all.

About 10,000 such businessmen have now been offered indemnity from the delinquency period in the federal budget 2003-2004, to the detriment of thousands of others who have been paying regularly and did not escape any notice or inquiry at the smallest possible under-assessment.

Defending the indemnity, the tax authorities said: "This happens to be a huge section of the business staying out of the net only due to the stubbornness of the policy makers who do not allow them entry for the past liabilities that are not highly significant in deposits but their listing would help document the market in a better way".

Though the tax authorities are proceeding against the non-payees to determine whether they were evading the dues, they explained to The News that there are two categories of such businessmen on this list.

There are some that did not actually owe anything as they either did not make taxable transactions or escaped coming on tax documents while supplying their goods.

Currently, the tax authorities are struggling to make about 27,000 businessmen pay up who did not pay or underpaid, but also took away money from the government claiming input credit of more than Rs5 billion in the July-May period.

Input credit is due to every businessman registered with a shop, factory or service-point.

Tax records reveal that despite running successful business for the last many years, thousands of delinquent businessmen showed losses and claimed expenses on marketing, manufacturing and other inputs.

They did not even apply for de-registration as provided under the GST law on inquiries during which they claimed persistent losses'.

In numerous such cases, tax officials did not even raise questions whether such businessmen needed to be proceeded against for such evasions.

These businessmen do not apply for de-registration because they get constant benefits from the national exchequer, stealing away input credit money from the tax deposited by other taxpayers, thanks again to the "cooperation" of the tax officials.

Steps to track these businessmen down and make them either pay up the tax or get de-registered, have not proved feasible, tax officials admitted.