FBR to launch biometric verification for new taxpayers

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is launching a biometric verification for new taxpayers as it steps up efforts to combat tax fraud and identity theft, a senior official said on Friday
“In the next couple of weeks, a foolproof biometric system along with photo will be made mandatory for registration with the tax authorities,” Rana Ahmed, Member Information Technology, told The News.
“In the first phase, the system will be used for new registrations, while the FBR would consider (biometric verification) of previously registered (tax payers) at a later stage” Ahmed said, while commenting on a query regarding fake NTN and exemption certificates in the WeBOC – Customs clearance system.
She ruled out the existence of fake identity in the computerised system; however, said there might be chances of identity theft. There might be cases where CNIC (computerised national identity card) of a person is used by another person for business proceeds with ill intentions.” “These issues will be addressed with the introduction of biometric system.”
As far as fake exemption certificate is concerned, she said from January 1, 2015, the application for the issuance of certificate was made through IRIS system, which was linked with the Inland Revenue – the issuing authority - for verification.
The taxpayers and the business community have raised their annoyance over certification issues through IRIS. Ahmed said most of the impediments had been resolved and the remaining would be rectified on identification.
Pakistan Customs is a withholding agent for the collection of income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty. The prevailing laws related to the withholding agents also apply to Pakistan Customs for sharing information about person from whom the tax was deducted, Ahmed said.
Advance income tax deducted at the Customs stage goes to the Regional Tax Office (RTO) Karachi and Sales Tax to the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi.
When contacted both the offices, the officials said there were reconciliation issues of data sharing with Pakistan Customs. Many cases of fake certificates and NTNs have been reported in the past, but the Inland Revenue, what the officials at the RTO and LTU said, is unable to get the real-time data of clearance.
Recently, the NAB Prevention Committee on the FBR recommended: Registration process (ID issuance) in the Customs’ automation system may be made more stringent to ensure that fake importers / exporters do not enter in the system. This will help in their post-clearance.
On this issue, the Member IT FBR said after the introduction of IRIS all the goods declaration and revenue deducted through WeBOC are available to the authorised IR and Customs officials.
In the past, tax departments had complained to the FBR about the mismatch of tax collected at the import stage and documents provided by the Customs authorities.