ISLAMABAD, June 19: The government has decided to establish a central registration office (CRO) under the aegis of Central Board of Revenue (CBR) for the speedy registration and de- registration of persons across the country.

An official in the CBR told Dawn on Saturday that initially the applications would be submitted to the local registration office at sales tax collectorates for registration and deregistration. The local office after some inquiry and audit would submit it to the central office for the final decision in this regard.

Due to abolition of the turnover tax scheme, CBR has also amended the existing sales tax registration and deregistration rules to make it user-friendly. The CBR has accordingly issued new rules in Chapter 1 of the sales tax rules 2004 notified through SRO450 of 2004. These rules shall be applicable from July 1, 2004.

According to the rules, manufacturers or retailers whose annual turnover exceeds Rs5 million and importers, a wholesaler and a person required to be registered under any federal or provincial law would apply for registration.

Elaborating further, the official said that the most striking feature of the new rules was that the registration application would be processed and registration certificate issued by the central registration office located in the CBR which would result to cut short the process involved.

The persons applying for registration shall submit his application in the prescribed format to the local registration office, which means the collectorate of the sales tax.

The local registration office after conducting necessary verifications or inquiries as deemed appropriate about the applicant would forward the application to the central registration office. The Central registration based on the local sale tax office report will issue registration certificate to the applicant.

Later on from the date to be specified by the board, the application for registration may be submitted electronically as well. While in case of transfer of registration, application will be sent directly to the central registration office for consideration.

For de-registration, the applicant would apply in the local registration office of sales tax collectorate. The local office could carry out inquiry and audit about the applicant and the case would be submitted to the central office for consideration, added the officer.