ISLAMABAD - The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Tuesday formally launched online tax collection system that will allow taxpayers to pay FBR taxes and duties using internet banking accounts or ATMs without the hassle of visiting the banks’ branches.
The system was launched by Haroon Akhtar, Special Advisor to Prime Minister on Revenue, in a ceremony held at FBR House in Islamabad on Tuesday. The ceremony was also attended by Tariq Bajwa, governor of SBP, Tariq Pasha, chairman of FBR, chairman and CEO 1Link and senior officials of SBP, FBR and Customs.
The online tax collection system is live now and the taxpayers can pay their taxes and duties from the convenience of their homes, offices or ATMs at any time 7 days a week. The system is based on the 1Link Biller module, whereby FBR has been added as one of the Billers on the banks’ Bill Payment page. To pay the taxes and duties, the tax payers/importers will fill their tax and custom duty payment details in FBR (IRIS) and Customs (WeBOC) to generate PSID (payment slip ID). The PSID so generated will then be used to access the tax/duty payment details on the banks’ webpage or ATM as the case may be. The taxpayer or their agent will then pay the tax by debiting his/her bank account for onward credit to the respective government account in SBP. The whole process is online and fully automated.
On the occasion, Haroon Akhtar congratulated the State Bank of Pakistan, FBR and 1Link for initiating and completing this important project. He said that the online collection system provides much needed relief and convenience to the tax payers and expressed optimism that the business community will take full advantage of the system and pay bulk of their taxes and duties using the online facility. He said as the system provides end to end solution right from filing of the tax return to payment of taxes to recording in government books of accounts and thus will bring efficiency, safety and transparency in government tax collection system. He added that the system will also be instrumental in improving Pakistan’s ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index.
The governor of SBP said that this project is in line with 'SBP Vision 2020', which envisages development of the robust payment system. The government receipts and payments being the largest components of the country’s payment system, the online collection of taxes will have a huge positive impact on the payment system efficiency and effectiveness. He said that SBP is also working with the provincial governments to extend the coverage of online tax collection system to the provincial taxes and receipts as well. He also emphasized the need for automation of government payments and said that SBP would work with AGPR and other stakeholders to eliminate cheques from government payments and shift to the Direct Credit System.
The chairman of FBR said that this project is the result of effective collaboration between FBR and SBP and will go a long way in improving the government tax collection system. He said that taxpayers’ facilitation is the core objective of the online collection system. The taxpayers and business community paying taxes online would be able to have confirmation of their tax payments on real time basis; the importers will be able to get their goods released immediately after payment of the taxes and duties. He said that the online collection system will run in parallel with the cash/pay order based system and the taxpayers will have the option to use the system of their respective choice and preference for payment of taxes.
He also highlighted the economic situation of the country. The government has almost doubled the tax collection from Rs1900 billion in 2013 to Rs4000 billion during current fiscal year. Similarly, the tax collection has also recorded healthy growth of 17.65 percent during ongoing financial year. The government has restricted the inflation rate at below four percent during its tenure, he added.