Deputy Commissioner Central Dr. M.B. Raja Dharejo has said that the e-tax payment facility, which was introduced in District Central as pilot project, has proved successful hence it will now be expanded to all districts of Karachi within the next one-and-a-half month.
Speaking at a meeting during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), DC Central categorically stated that no new tax or tariff has been introduced in the e-tax payment facility which was an online local tax collection system in which all the taxation rates have been kept intact while the collection under Municipal Charges was not something new which was being charged exactly as per relevant laws.President KCCI M. Shariq Vohra, Senior Vice President Saqib Goodluck, Vice President Shamsul Islam Khan, Chairman of KCCI’s Special Committee for Small Traders Majeed Memon and a large number of small traders mostly from District Central attended the meeting.DC Central pointed out that the e-tax payment facility has been introduced with an intention to minimize human interaction which was resulting in harassing the shopkeepers to demand bribe.
“With this initiative, the manual tax collection has been transformed into digital collection which would surely ease the process and save shopkeepers from harassment and corruption as the human interaction factor has been completely eliminated”, he said, adding that the shopkeepers can easily assess their tax dues and generate challan themselves for payments either on a computer or even on a smart phone and the process was very easy.
He was of the view that as the fund generated from Municipal Charges were being transferred directly to DC Office’s account hence, these funds will be returned to the shopkeepers in shape of municipal development work in their respective markets.
Speaking on the occasion, President KCCI Shariq Vohra stressed the need to minimize the hardships being faced by small traders who play a very important role in the economic development of the country.
“The local administration will have to take effective steps to strictly deal with the harassment by officials from DC office who fearlessly walk into any shop to negotiate taxes and demand bribes”, he added.
