Watch out!: Unregistered consumers in for an unpleasant surprise

The KESC will levy a five per cent tax on consumers not on FBR’s active taxpayers list.

KARACHI:

The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) announced that it would start charging five per cent extra sales tax, excluding federal taxes, from all those consumers who are not on the active taxpayers list.

These charges will take effect from June 13, 2003, in compliance with the Federal Government notifications 509(I)/2013 and 510(I)/2013. The tax would be applicable on all unregistered industrial and commercial consumers and those registered with the utility but not on the active taxpayers list maintained by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), provided their monthly bill exceeds Rs15,000.

In a statement explaining the procedure, the electricity utility said that anyone claiming to be registered with the FBR can get a waiver by producing the original sales tax registration certificate along with a copy for verification at the relevant Integrated Business Centre. It further clarified that the as per the Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) 510(I)/2013, the name, address and other particulars of a consumer appearing on the sales tax registration certificate or the active taxpayers list must be the same as that given to the power utility at the time of registration. This would require those having multiple business locations to add the same on the sales tax registration certificate to avoid the tax.



The company also claimed that the tax is also applicable on consumers having industrial and commercial connection but registered under the provincial sales tax law instead of its federal equivalent as well as those not required to obtain sales tax registration under the Sales Tax Act 1990 for any reason.

KESC stated that one of the conditions given in the SRO for not imposing the tax is that the consumer must appear as an active taxpayer on the FBR website. It was, however, not humanly possible for the utility to verify the details of such a large consumer base at the time bills are issued as the process of bills generation is system-based. The consumers can visit the business centres or call the helpline (118) to update their sales tax registration details.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2013.