Clients of 2 banks to get benefit initially
The National Board of Revenue is going to launch online tax payment system in early next month facilitating corporate taxpayers to pay taxes direct from their bank accounts, officials of the NBR said. After inauguration of the system, large taxpayers will be able to pay taxes — income tax, value-added tax and customs duties — through account-to-account transactions sitting at homes and offices, they said.
Primarily, account holders with Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank NA will enjoy the facility as the two banks have signed an agreement with Sonali Bank, banking partner of the NBR’s e-payment initiative, to provide their clients with the facility.
‘Introduction of payment of taxes through account-to-account transactions will popularise the NBR’s e-payment method as it will save time of taxpayers, reduce hassle and make the tax payment system simplified,’ a high official of the NBR told New Age on Sunday.
The system will be ready to be functional by next week and then technology providers will conduct a trial run for some days to check if everything is alright, he said.
‘The revenue board may formally inaugurate online tax payment mechanism from April 1,’ he said.
Gradually, other banks having online banking facilities will join in the system, officials of the NBR said adding that Q-cash authorities have already been asked to develop their system for enabling online tax payment for clients of other banks.
The NBR in May 27, 2012 launched e-payment system that enabled taxpayers having accounts with selected 31 commercial banks linked with Q-cash network to pay their income tax, VAT and duties using debit cards and Sonali Bank prepaid cards.
The NBR developed an e-payment web portal to facilitate taxpayers to pay taxes online.
But the response from the taxpayers was very poor as the system cannot support to clear big amount of taxes in absence of account-to-account transactions, the officials said.
‘Though individual taxpayers paid taxes through the system, the corporate taxpayers could not pay taxes through the e-payment portal as it was not possible to pay big amount of taxes through debit and prepaid cards,’ another NBR official said.
Now, the big taxpayers will be able to pay taxes just sitting at their offices, he said.
Under the system, if a taxpayer wants to transfer his/her taxes from his bank account, he will be able to clear the amount of taxes to Sonali Bank through NBR e-payment web portal.
The system will minimise the physical communication between taxpayers and taxmen which will reduce harassment of taxpayers, the officials said.
It will also increase revenue collection by curbing anomalies and evasion of taxes, they hoped.
-With New Age input
