Sales tax registration applications lying unattended: FPCCI

KARACHI: A large number of prospective taxpayers may fail to take benefits of the tax amnesty scheme as the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is sitting on a heap of their sales tax registration and national tax number applications, said a business leader. 

“Thousands of applications filed online are lying unattended (with the FBR) and people are anxiously awaiting response,” said Sheikh Mohammad Tariq, chairman standing committee on customs of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

“After commencement of voluntary tax compliance scheme, we don’t see any mechanism or plan of the FBR to swiftly handle applications for issuance of NTN (national tax number) and sales tax registration.”

Tariq said the  Federal Board of Revenue should have made prior arrangements to arrange same day issuance of tax registration. He added that a special task force should immediately be constituted to deal with this situation.

He suggested that special kiosks/counters could be established at convenient places for the applicants. Such counters should be set up at FPCCI offices throughout the country to facilitate taxpayers, he said.

Meanwhile, the FBR set up a control room-cum-operational room in the FBR headquarters to coordinate activities in field formations across Pakistan to facilitate and educate the traders about the voluntary tax compliance scheme.

An official said all chief commissioners of regional tax offices (RTOs) have already been instructed not to issue any notice to a person who becomes part of this scheme, without the approval of FBR headquarters.

To make the scheme successful and to facilitate the traders’ community, focal persons and sub-focal persons have also been appointed in all RTOs, while informative and explanatory material about the scheme is also ready.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to the PM on Revenue advised the FBR operations wing to instruct all RTOs and field formations to hold regular meeting with the representatives of traders association and local tax bar associations.

“Such meetings should be held within the next two days so that an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence can be built early on to make the scheme successful,” Khan said.—Javed Mirza