ISLAMABAD (September 24 2003): The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) would not demand Income Tax Assessment Order for the last two years in cases of first-time sales tax registration, sources told on Tuesday.
Under a sales tax ruling of August 2003, the authorities had made bank certificate, membership of federation/chamber and Income Tax Assessment Order for the last two years mandatory for fresh registration.
However, a number of businessmen strongly contested the move, saying that how a person who started new business and applied first time for registration could submit assessment order for 'last two years'.
The CBR received a number of presentations terming production of assessment order as an impossible condition to be fulfilled by fresh registrants. As a result of this, the collectorates of sales tax on receipt of this had immediately started demanding previous income tax orders from new registration applicants.
Now, the CBR is devising a new sales tax registration procedure, which would be notified shortly.
Sources said that certainly it is not practically possible for the person starting new business to submit Income Tax Assessment Order for last two years. However, those persons doing business for over two years and are registered with the income tax department would have to submit such income tax order for new sales tax registration.
It may be recalled that authenticity of applicant's identity card would be checked through verification from National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and declared telephone/ cellular numbers would be checked from telecommunication department.
