KARACHI, April 6: The Southern Region of Income Tax netted around 60,000 new taxpayers during the last five months and also allotted them national tax number (NTN), officials said on Tuesday. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz has declared the FY2003-04 as the year for broadening tax net. Therefore, all the tax regions of the country have embarked upon special arrangements to increase the number of taxpayers.
In the Southern Region, three new cells at Sukkur, Hyderabad and Quetta have been established for immediate issuance of NTN number, and arrangements have been made to facilitate the process at every stage, the officials said. In Karachi, NTNs are already being issued.
An official of a local tax department told Dawn that by the close of FY-2003-04, an equal number of new taxpayers would be added, which might take the total up to 120,000.
The region has also made special arrangements for allotting NTNs to the salaried class by directly collecting NIC numbers from their employers. In the absence of NTN, the salaried class people were not being issued assessment orders by the tax department.
However, after allotting NTNs to the salaried people the process of issuance of assessment order has started and this has also facilitated refund payment, the official added.
Furthermore, arrangements have also been made to provide the NTN number or certificate to a taxpayer at his residence or work place on a payment of Rs50 as courier charges.
After a major policy shift in the revenue collection method, tax collectors are now focusing on confidence-building measures with the taxpayers. The Universal Self-Assessment Scheme (USAS) is another step in this direction, particularly when its area had been broadened to accommodate maximum category and number of taxpayers.
"The declared income of a taxpayer is accepted without any fuss or involvement from the department barring in such cases where some glaring differences are noted," the official maintained. After giving adjustment against withholding tax, if refund is due, the same is immediately issued, he added. As per the Central Board of Revenue directives, the Southern Region has already paid refund claims amounting up to Rs10,000 without verification.
In order to encourage confidence-building measures, the department has arranged these payments even in those cases where challans are not submitted and also have some shore documents. As a result of this move, the salaried class benefited the most as their claims mostly remain below the Rs10,000 mark.
However, a high official of the Southern Region admitted that the biggest problem confronting the on-going reform agenda is the changing of mindset of tax collectors. However, he said courses were being held for officers up to Grade-20 in order to bring in change within the system.
Furthermore, audit manual and other literature are being distributed to revenue collectors as well as taxpayers to promote tax culture in the country and all measures are taken to minimize interaction between officials and taxpayers.
Already positive results have started coming, which are evident from the fact that this year revenue collection is higher by 15 per cent, over the corresponding period of the last year, the official added.
