The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been urged to simplify and re-engineer the tax payment and return/statement filing processes for businesses operating at federal and provincial levels.
In a communication to Finance Minister Asad Umar on Thursday, a copy of which was also forwarded to Prime Minister Imran Khan, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL), Imtiaz Ahmad Khan, has proposed a new policy for ease of doing business in Pakistan.
It has been proposed that the monthly National Tax Payment (NTP) and National Business Statement (NBS) should be prescribed for businesses to collect all kinds of taxes at federal/provincial levels and submission of returns/statements under one form.
Imtiaz Ahmad Khan explained that a medium-sized company registered in Pakistan has to make at least 54 payments in a year under normal circumstances and up to 90 payments if it operates in all the provinces by following cumbersome processes. Moreover, the taxpayer company has to submit at least 55 returns/statements to various tax-related departments if the business is operated in just one province whereas this number goes up to 91 if the business operates in all the provinces.
There is an urgent need to simplify and re-engineer the payment and return/statement filing processes. Under the re-engineered processes, a company should be required to pay all duties, taxes & fees through a National Tax Payment (NTP) once a month. The re-engineered system should electronically bifurcate and credit the payments made through NTP to the respective federal and provincial authorities at the close of day. Similarly, a National Business Statement (NBS) can be devised and obtained electronically once a month from each business and relevant information be transmitted to the respective organisation electronically.
In this manner, each and every business will only be required to make just one payment and statement every month which will give huge relief to the business and would be a great step towards the Prime Minister's vision of increasing ease of doing business, Imtiaz proposed.
The former CEO PRAL said, "We appreciate the initiatives being taken by the government of Pakistan for making doing business easy in the country which will not only encourage the local businesses but also attract foreign investment in the country."
For real creation of ease of doing business, a number of areas require simplification in the business processes and removal of redundancies. "We are proposing the measures to be taken for the area of "Paying Taxes" which will be a real reform in this area and elevate the ranking of Pakistan."
At present a medium-sized company registered in Pakistan has to make at least 54 tax payments in a year under normal circumstances and up to 90 payments if it operates in all the provinces by following cumbersome processes.
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