KARACHI (December 09 2005): The e-filing of sales tax and federal excise will be applicable on the returns for November 2005 tax period to be filed by December 15, 2005.
“The facility will initially remain available to the corporate entities that would include all the taxpayers registered with the Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) and private and public limited companies,” Member Sales Tax & Federal Excise, Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Shahid Ahmed, said at a seminar on “electronic filing of federal excise and sales tax returns and other documents here on Thursday.
The start of e-filing of returns in Karachi followed the launching of same in Lahore two days back, for which the CBR had issued SROs 1184 & 1185 (I) 2005 on December 1. It is mandatory for all the registered taxpayers of the Karachi and Lahore LTUs and public and private limited companies registered in other collectorates to file their returns electronically.
Collector, Sales Tax House, Karachi, Khalid Mahmood, Collector, Enforcement, Sales Tax and Federal Excise Duty, Ghulam Ahmed, other officials of the CBR and members of business community attended the seminar.
Describing the electronic filing of returns as a step forward, Shahid Ahmed said that it would be facilitating the taxpayers to a greater extent in filing their returns by removing the entry of date problems and ensuring efficient availability of the revenue data from major revenue contributors.
“As it is a hassle-free system with maximum level of protection and confidentiality, the e-filing of returns will help in saving a lot of time, which is consumed in manual system of filing of returns,” he added. “There will not be any problem for the taxpayers to file their returns electronically, as they are doing the same through the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and now directly to the CBR,” he said.
Shahid also said that e-filing of returns is the first step under the CBR reforms programme. Following its launching we would be moving towards filing of invoices and others documents electronically. He said that in order to get the taxpayers comprehend the new system clearly, training would be imparted to the people involved in filing of returns. “Dedicated counters would be established to facilitate the taxpayers,” he added.
Earlier, Additional Collector, Sales Tax House, Karachi, Abdul Majid Yousafani giving a presentation highlighted various aspects of e-filing of returns.
Under this system, he said, returns would be directly submitted to the CBR instead of the NBP with immediate acknowledgement of receipts by the CBR.
As no re-feeding of data required, thus, there would be no feeding errors along with no chances of misplacement of returns because no physical movement of returns would take place.
In order to avail of the facility the taxpayers will be required to get digital certification from the National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (Pvt) Ltd (NIFT), which will ensure security of the data transferred.
Payment of sales tax and excise duty, if any, should be made by the taxpayer in any online branch of the NBP and the bank would issue a computerised payment receipt to the taxpayer details of which would be entered on the e-return.
Central Mail Office in the CBR, on receiving the returns, will send an electronic acknowledgement to the taxpayer. The system will further be upgraded to become completely web-based in about three months. Ahsan Rashid of NIFT also spoke on the occasion.
