KARACHI, Sept 23: The Southern Region of Income Tax, Karachi, up to September 22, 2004 collected more than 21,000 tax returns or 113 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year when around 10,000 returns were collected, officials said on Thursday.

Similarly, there is a marked rise in the registration of taxpayers, and the officials said the Region this year issued up to 1,000 national tax numbers (NTNs) per day as against 150-200 NTNs per day last year, showing a remarkable rise in the number of registered taxpayers.

"The early availability of tax return forms along with proper guidance and arrangements to facilitate taxpayers at all the five zones helped the Region produce better results."

In another move, the southern region has also approached big organizations like Pakistan International Airlines, the Port Qasim, the Karachi Port, Sui Southern Gas Company, Pakistan Steel and Karachi Electric Supply Corporation for on-the-spot collection of tax returns of their employees.

It has also made arrangements to depute officers and staff of Zone-D that handles salaried-class people, and the staff headed by a commission will visit such organizations on any specified day. These organizations have been asked to prepare their tax return forms along with necessary supporting documents.

The officials said PIA had around 40,000 employees and SSGS some 20,000. Similarly, other such big organizations have over 10,000 employees. "The spirit behind collecting such bulk tax returns on-the-spot, besides facilitating taxpayers is to create an enabling environment between the tax department and taxpayers," Regional Commissioner of Income Tax (RCIT), S.M. Athar told Dawn.

He said there was a greater need for bringing a change in the mindset of tax collectors who hitherto had been working on a perception that every taxpayer is a tax evader.

Another theory on which the revenue collecting authorities are hooked up is meeting the target set by the CBR. "This has also created bad norms and many a time tax officers exceeded their authority in order to meet the targets," he added.

However, the ongoing reform in the CBR and its departments is not only bringing in a change in the attitude of tax collectors, but is also creating a healthy and enabling environment for both the tax collectors and taxpayers.

In order to do away with past norms, Mr Athar said the CBR had also changed the word "tax net" with "clients". "Now every taxpayer is our client and is treated as a member of the tax club."

The RCIT said the current high momentum of filing tax returns indicated that unlike in the past there would be a little last minute rush (Sept 30 last date) for filing the returns.

Nevertheless, he said the Region would make special arrangements for collecting returns during the last three days, but after the CBR finalized the programme, which would be followed by all tax regions of the country.

Giving other details, he said the department was also having a direct link with businesses and holding meetings with trade bodies and bazaar committees. "There is a good response as the taxpayers have started taking interest in filing tax returns."

Mr Athar said the scheme of 0.75 per cent as final tax liability for small and medium enterprises having a turnover below Rs50 million per annum was gaining popularity. He said the Region this year expected between 50,000 and 100,000 more taxpayers to come in the "tax club".