April 01, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1428

ISLAMABAD, March 31: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has issued procedures for depositing of tax challan in State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to be effective from April 1, 2007.

An official announcement issued here by CBR said that for deposit of tax by individual, AOP, corporate taxpayers (limited companies) through single challans, it would be mandatory to mention national tax number (NTN) or Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC).

In the cases, where tax deducted under various provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 from the multiple taxpayers is deposited by the withholding agents, tax payment challan will be acceptable without CNIC or NTN provided further tax at the rate of 2 per cent, chargeable under 8(A) of Section 153 of income Tax Ordinance, 2001 is also deposited along with the challan.

It is also clarified that further tax at the rate of 2 per cent chargeable under the aforementioned statutory provision of law prevails over the administrative instructions.

The CBR has further advised the prescribed persons, who are required to deduct tax under the law from the payments to their vendors, suppliers and agents etc., to collect their NTN and CNIC for incorporating the same in the tax payment challan as well as in the periodic withholding statements.

This will help in the documentation of the economy and also enable full implementation of the Collection Automation Project that has been started by the CBR for solving various tax deposit, credit related problems of the tax paying community.

The CBR had earlier announced that from April 1, 2007 tax deposit challan will not be accepted by SBP and NBP without mentioning of valid NTN or CNIC number. However, CBR has received representations from various withholding agents intimating their difficulties to fully implement the system on account of non-availability of NTN or CNIC of a large number of their “payees”.