E-tax payment facility to be expanded to all Sindh districts

The Government of Sindh will implement its online system of local tax collection in all of the districts of the province in a gradual manner. The decision to this effect was taken during a meeting chaired by Local Government Secretary Najam Ahmed Shah at his office on Monday.

A month ago the chief minister had approved the launch of the E-Municipal Tax Portal as a pilot project in the jurisdiction of Karachi’s Central District Municipal Corporation with the objective of facilitating local taxpayers and plugging pilferage in revenue collection.

The local taxpayers are not required to pay any fee to get registered with the new e-tax system, which is free from any human interference. The web portal for the e-municipal tax system registers small business owners, retailers, proprietors and shopkeepers for the payment of their local taxes.

The LG secretary on Monday urged the officials concerned to use modern technology to digitise all the official work related to his department to the maximum possible extent.

He also urged all the officials of the department to use the best of their abilities in discharging official work to facilitate the masses through the provision of the mandatory municipal services.

He said that maximum transparency should be maintained in the work related to the LG department, adding that priority should be given to the court orders related to the services of the department. He also asked the officials concerned to remain impartial while discharging their duties. Last month the CM had approved the launch of the e-tax portal during a meeting in which District Central Deputy Commissioner MB Dharejo had given a detailed briefing to the chief executive.

Dharejo said the portal had been designed to facilitate local traders and other taxpayers for the issuance of trade licences and the payment of taxes. He said traders would have to apply on the portal for new trade licences and then get them registered to pay their taxes. He made the assurance that it was a free-of-charge and hassle-free system that was also free from human interference.

The DC said that a taxpayer, shopkeeper or business unit proprietor would have to register their name along with their CNIC number, phone number, address and locality of the business establishment on the portal.

Through its SMS alert service, the portal will respond to the person and issue them with a bar-coded trade licence and bar-coded challan, he added.

He said that at present, his district municipal corporation collected four taxes and their annual recovery was around Rs16 million, adding that the district had 75,000 business establishments. He also said the portal had been designed by his team free of charge, as no procurement of services had been made in this regard.

The CM said that after the launch of the portal, revenue recovery would increase manifold, following which it would be used for the development of the district. Under the present arrangement, the DMC gives contracts for tax recovery, the result of which is peanuts, he added.

The chief executive directed the LG secretary to hold a meeting with the Sindh Revenue Board to secure the data of the business community on their servers. He also directed the District Central DC to set up facilitation desks at major shopping centres and involve local trade associations to train them and guide them to avail the facility. “We are not increasing the tax rate or imposing any new tax but just making the existing taxes digital.”

He said the project would be replicated in other districts of the city once it was successfully launched in District Central. He ordered connecting the portal with the National Database & Registration Authority for the verification of CNIC numbers.