RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has approved launching of an online e-municipal tax portal as a pilot project in DMC Central with the objective to facilitate the local taxpayers and plug pilferages.

This decision was taken at a meeting held here at the CM House on Thursday.

Deputy Commissioner (Central) M B Dharejo, giving a detailed briefing to the chief minister, said that the portal had been designed just to facilitate the local taxpayers and traders for payment of taxes and issuance of trade licenses.

The traders would have to apply online on the portal for new licences and payment of local taxes by getting themselves registered on the portal.

It is hassle-free and free of cost.

The taxpayer/ shopkeeper/ business unit proprietor would have to register his name along with insertion of his CNIC number, mobile phone number, address and locality of a business establishment in the portal.

The portal through its SMS alert service would respond to them and issue them bar-coded trade licences and bar-coded challans.

At present, DMC Central collects four taxes and their annual recovery stands at around Rs16 million.

The DMC Central has 75,000 business establishments.

The DC told the chief minister that the portal had been designed by his team free of cost and no procurement had been made.

“After launching of the portal, recovery would increase many folds which would be used for development of the area,” the chief minister said.

Under the present practice, the DMC contracts out recoveries of their taxes, therefore recoveries were like peanuts, the chief minister said. The chief minister directed the secretary of local government to hold a meeting with the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) to secure the data of the business community on their server.

Shah directed the DC Central 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.”

The chief minister also decided that the other DMCs would replicate the project once it was successfully launched in district central.

He also decided to connect it with the data of NADRA for verification of the CNIC numbers. The meeting was also attended among others by Minister for Local Government Nasir Shah.