ISLAMABAD, June 6: The government has amended the Federal Excise Act 2005 to incorporate enabling provisions to monitor the production of certain industries through close circuit television (CCTV) and technical experts.

Through the Finance Bill 2006, the amendment has been made in section 45 of the act to be effective from July 1, 2006. The measure, which is in line with the system in vogue in many advanced economies, would not only help in recording the production also succour in differentiating between tax paid and non-tax paid stocks.

The CCTV cameras linked to offsite centralised facilities may be installed at the manufacturing premises for monitoring by the tax authorities.

The government also introduced the concept of common taxpayer identification number (CTIN). The concept of introducing CTIN is an important ingredient of the tax reform process initiated by the CBR. However, the term was not defined either in the sales tax or in excise laws. Accordingly, the term is being defined in the two statutes enforced by inserting a new clause (5A) in section 2 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.

An amendment has been made in the Federal Excise Rule 2005, which binds the cigarette manufacturers to print their name on packets to promote tax compliance as well as discourage the counterfeit products and amended the excise legislation to disallow drawback of excise duty from July 1, 2006. Similarly, according to the amendment proposed in the Finance Bill 2006, no cigarettes would be imported without printing retail price from June 5, 2006.

On the analogy of the sales tax law, sub-section (5) of section 12 of the FEA, 2005 is being amended to empower the CBR to collect excise duty on a fixed minimum value from July this year.

Through amendments in the sales tax act, the government authorized the additional collector to file appeal before the Appellate Tribunal and reference to the High Court. Under the existing sales tax and excise laws, an officer up to the rank of deputy collector is authorized to file a reference in the High Court. However, there was no officer specified for filing appeal in the Appellate Tribunal.