ISLAMABAD, April 27: The Central Board of Revenue on Thursday launched electronic filing of application for sales tax registration.

According to the new procedure, the taxpayers could now send their applications for registration, in the prescribed form ST-1, directly to the Central Registration Office at CBR at the email address: staxregistration@cbr.gov.pk, an official announcement here said.

This will eliminate the step of filing the application with the local registration office and its subsequent transfer to the CRO.

A person liable to registration can visit the CBR website and click the link relating to “Efiling” and then can proceed to download the application for new registration (ST-1 form).

The form can be filled in and the same can be attached with email to be sent to the address given above. The detailed instructions for filling the form and sending the same to the CRO are also available on the same link.

In the past, there have been numerous complaints regarding delays in the registration process.

The CBR introduced the concept of centralised registrations by establishing the CRO at

CBR in the budgetary measures for 2004-05, so that the process could be monitored closely.

This step helped reduce the time required for registration. But the process still required original filing of applications in collectorates — local registration offices. Such applications could not be transmitted to the CBR expeditiously and prospective taxpayers suffered on this account.