ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The government has decided to make it binding for all exporters and importers to produce valid National Tax Numbers (NTN) for the clearance of their consignments at all the entering and exit points.

A senior official in the Central Board of Revenue told Dawn on Thursday that at the first stage the same condition had been made compulsory for all exporters and importers for the clearance of their shipment at Karachi ports.

According to him, in case of those who were registered under the sales tax would have to produce their sales tax registration number at the time of clearance of their goods.

The importers and exporters who fail to produce the valid NTN will not be allowed to clear their consignments, said the official. The same condition of valid NTN will be introduced at all the exit and entry points shortly for the clearance of goods by importers and exporters.

To facilitate the exporters and importers, the official said, Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) would provide the NTN numbers to them at all the exit and entry points within 24 hours of submitting the forms.

Moreover, the official said that the time limit for the issuance of NTN would be reduced from current 24 hours to two hours very shortly.

Elaborating the importance of the condition of valid NTN, the CBR official said it would help in maintaining records about exporters and importers. This data, would in future be utilized by the tax authorities to determine that the same person was either paying income tax and sales tax on the products manufactured or supplied.

PRAL was also working on the data analysis to make it up-to-date, the official said, adding that for the last 20 years no changes have been made to it. There are so many taxpayers, who have even changed their residences and other correspondence address and they were not introduced in their NTN forms, the official added.