ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan has advised all the commercial banks to enable Over The Counter (OTC) facility for collection of taxes and duties in order to facilitate the taxpayers in discharging tax obligations.
This was said by Hafiz Attiq Ur Rehman Assistant Chief Manager of SBP’s Banking Services Corporation while giving a briefing to the local business community on various Alternate Digital Channels for payment of taxes and duties.
He said that if any commercial bank refused to collect taxes, the taxpayers could launch complaint against it on the website of SBP by clicking on helpdesk icon.
He said that commercial banks had also been advised to carry out an awareness campaign through text messages and ATM screen display so that their clients could avail available options for payment of taxes and duties.
He said that in the past, taxpayers had to pay taxes and duties only through State Bank of Pakistan and National Bank of Pakistan, but now they have the options to pay tax dues through Alternate Digital Channels (ADCs) including ATM, Internet Banking Portal and commercial banks.
He said that under Vision2020, SBP has visualized the strategic and tactical goals for digital banking with the aim to develop a modern and robust payment system to improve the efficiency, security, costs and access of payments and settlements infrastructure.
He said the purpose was to provide an enabling environment for the development of Automated Transfer Systems.
Hafiz Attiq Ur Rehman said that agreements between the Government of Pakistan through Pakistan Customs with World Customs Organization (WCO) and WTO were signed for trade facilitation and introduction of electronic payment system for collection of duties and taxes.
He said that SBP and Pakistan Customs had initiated the project in December 2016 and a process mechanism between SBP, FBR and 1Link was developed.
Highlighting the benefits of ADCs, he said these options facilitate taxpayers to pay taxes and duties from anywhere, thus eliminating the need to visit bank branches. He said ADCs reduce cost of clearance process and save time of taxpayers as they can pay tax 24/7. He said tax payments are cleared instantly as compared to previous mechanism.
He said because of convenience and the ease of use, ADCs have removed dependency of taxpayers on middle man such as custom agents for the purpose of paying tax/custom duties.
