08 March 2005	Tuesday	26 Muharram 1426

LAHORE, March 7: The government is enacting a law to discourage benami transaction, especially in the real estate sector, to bring transparency in financial matters.

This was stated by regional commissioner Income Tax (Eastern Region) Haji Ahmed while speaking to businessmen at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Monday.

He said the new law would empower the Central Board of Revenue to investigate the sale and purchase of files of property. He said the enforcement of the proposed law would help discourage premium on property to a great extent.

Mr Ahmed said the eastern region would observe April 1 as 'revenue day' to recognize the highest taxpayers of this region. He said the highest taxpayers would also be co-opted on different committees of the department.

He said the Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) in Lahore would start functioning by the end of the current month. One LTU is already operational in Karachi. Another is proposed to be set up in Islamabad.

Mr Ahmed said the CBR planned to establish another three medium taxpayer units (MTUs) in three more cities, including Karachi and Quetta. Three MTUs are already working in Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.

He said the MTUs in Karachi and Quetta were expected to become operational by the end of this month. Further, he said, the CBR proposed to set up 12 regional IT offices to facilitate the taxpayers. These were to be set up in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Karachi and other cities.

Mr Ahmed said three more branches of IT appellate tribunal had also been established to ensure speedy disposal of appeals. He said the eastern region had achieved 58 per cent of its revenue collection target of Rs23 billion for the current year.