ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday launched an online tax collection system, allowing taxpayers to pay taxes and duties using internet banking accounts or ATMs, without the hassle of visiting bank branches.

The online tax collection system is live now and the taxpayers can pay their federal taxes including income tax, sales tax, customs duty and federal excise duty through alternative delivery channels — ATM, online banking, phone banking and contact centres — at any time seven days a week.

The system is based on the 1Link Biller module, whereby FBR has been added as one of the Billers on the banks’ ‘Bill Payment’ page.

As per details of the system, to pay the taxes and duties, the taxpayers/importers will fill their tax and custom duty payment details in FBR (IRIS) and Customs (WeBOC) to generate PSID (payment slip ID).

The PSID so generated will then be used to access the tax/duty payment details on the banks’ webpage or ATM as the case may be. The taxpayer or their agent will then pay the tax by debiting his/her bank account for onward credit to the respective government account in SBP. The whole process is online and fully automated.

The system was launched by Special Advisor to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan in a ceremony held at FBR. It was attended by Tariq Bajwa, Governor SBP, Chairman FBR, Chairman and CEO 1Link and other senior officials of SBP, FBR and Customs.

Haroon Akhtar Khan congratulated the SBP, FBR and 1Link for initiating and completing this important project.

He expressed optimism that the business community will take full advantage of the system and pay bulk of their taxes and duties using the online facility.

Governor SBP Tariq Bajwa said that the online collection of taxes will have an immense positive impact on the payment system efficiency and effectiveness, adding that SBP is also working to extend the coverage of online tax collection system to the provincial taxes and receipts as well.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2018