Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah has approved the launching of an online municipal tax portal as a pilot project to facilitate taxpayers in Karachi's Central district municipal corporation (DMC).
At a meeting on Thursday, the Central deputy commissioner (DC) informed the CM the online portal had been designed specifically to facilitate traders in the payment of taxes and issuance of trade licences.
"The traders will have to apply online on the portal for new licences and to pay their local taxes," he apprised, terming it a free service without any hassles and adding that it had been set up without spending any money.
Taxpayers and business proprietors will have to register their names along with their CNIC number, mobile phone number, address and locality, he briefed. He added that the portal would issue bar-coded trade licences and challans to them.
"Currently, the Central DMC collects four types of taxes and its annual recovery stands at around Rs16 million," stated the DC, adding that the district had 75,000 business establishments. "The new platform will help increase tax collection manifold." He said the DMC was currently outsourcing tax collection, reducing its recovery.
The CM directed the Sindh local government secretary to meet the Sindh Revenue Board in order to secure the business community's data on their server. He also told the Central DC to set up facilitation desks at major shopping centres, while also training and guiding local trade associations to avail the facility.
Shah also stated that other DMCs would replicate the project if it was successful in Central district, further deciding to link it to the National Database and Registration Authority's data to verify CNIC details.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2020.
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