Government launching online portal to simplify taxpaying procedures

ISLAMABAD: The government is going to launch an online portal by December 30, 2018 to simplify and consolidate 47 types of taxes and procedures as part of its campaign to improve Pakistan's ranking on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ indicators, an official said on Tuesday.

“We would reduce the number of procedures to at least 15 that would also reduce time. We would also seek the support of the Prime Minister and make these procedure simplified and consolidated through online portal,” Haroon Sharif, chairman BoI, told The News.

“Simplification and consolidation of numerous taxes [47 in number] has been worked out through online paying taxes, now the government is working on making it operational by 30th of December which would be done by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and provincial tax authorities.”

This simplification and consolidation of these types of taxes was the major demand of the investors as on indicator of paying taxes, Pakistan was far behind at 173rd place among 190 economies of the world as shown by World Bank’s ‘Doing Business Report’ 2019.

Sharif said Pakistan had to submit progress on the indicator of ‘Paying taxes’ to World Bank by December 30, as it was the target, adding, he was hopeful, Pakistan could do a lot.

“On ten indicators for ease of doing business we would be briefing Prime Minister in detail on Thursday and would also inform him regarding the hurdles the existing investors and the ones in pipelines are facing. We have formed joint teams with the every relevant department and working on the specific reforms.”

The BOI chair said on technical level, they had completed around 90 percent work, now there would be need of decision on it on political level.

“The FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) has done homework on it [online portal], now it has to be launched with the provinces, as there are different taxes on provincial and federal levels,” Sharif added.

On the progress of Sprint-III for 100 days, which the government had launched on October 5, 2018 and would complete on Jan 20, 2018, he said they had made a huge progress.

A senior official told the News that Prime Minister had directed the BoI to prepare a work plan on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and come up with timelines for achieving the targets till Thursday.

The Prime Minister gave these directions to BOI on Monday while taking briefings from various ministries and departments on their performance during last 100 days.

“Prime Minister is taking progress on the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking very seriously and is directly monitoring this activity,” another official said and added, “We are focusing on reducing cost, time, and procedures for starting and running a business in Pakistan.”

The premier also asked the BOI to brief him on the status of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and bring all the problems they are facing to his notice so that those issues could be sorted out work on it could be expedited.

The PM also asked the BoI officials to increase their interaction with the provinces, as they were also major shareholders in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ drive.

He also said that he personally intervene to resolve any issue with the provinces.

The PM also directed the officials to improve the indicators, and keep the organisations on board to which these indications were concerned.

The BoI is currently working on it, holding meetings with the relevant officials and departments that are critical for the improving the ease of doing business indicators.

It is worth mentioning that in the World Bank’s recent Doing Business report 2019 Pakistan has improved by 11 notches to 136th spot from last year’s 147th place among 190 economies of the world.

The BoI has targeted to bring Pakistan at the 100th place by next year. According to the World Bank’s doing business report, on ten indicators, Pakistan is far behind on ‘paying taxes’ and stands at 173rd place [with 47 types of payments procedures) while on indicator of ‘Protecting the Minority Investors’, Islamabad is at 26th place among these economies of the World. On resolving insolvency, Islamabad is at 53rd place.