Sales tax law: mention of supplier's account number not mandatory

The Central Board of Revenue has clarified that in terms of Section 73 of Sales Tax Act 1990 disclosure of bank account number of suppliers is not mandatory for the buyer.
In response to a letter from Chartered Accountants, Shekha and Mufti, seeking clarification regarding the implications of Section 73 of Sales Tax Act 1990, the CBR said, "In terms of Section 73 of the Sales Tax Act 1990 it is not mandatory upon the buyer to disclose the business bank account number of the supplier on the face of the Banking instrument."
Adnan Mufti of Shekha & Mufti told Business Recorder on Friday that the revised version of Section 73 of Sales tax Act 1990 had created ambiguity whereby the registered suppliers and buyers of taxable goods had been made liable to carry out business transactions only from their business accounts duly declared to the respective collector of sales tax.
The firm had asked the CBR to give its authentic ruling over the issue whether disclosure of bank account number of supplier was mandatory on the part of buyer or not in terms of Section 73 of the Act.
Mufti said that a question arose whether the buyer was also liable to disclose the supplier's bank account number on the face of cheques, draft or any other banking instrument issued by him in favour of supplier against purchase proceeds.
He said that a plain reading of the provision of Section 73 did not indicate this condition.
In a letter to CBR he had explained that the compliance of Section 73 would also become impractical in case where buyers of a registered person had maintained multiple account numbers (declared to the collector).
He further explained to the CBR that it would evenly be difficult to comply with such condition, especially by industries which issue hundreds of cheques on daily basis. Businesses having specific computer software installed in their accounts department through which cheques, drafts or pay orders are printed by giving command to the software would also face multiple problems as they would require amendments in such software to make the payments in line with Section 73 of the Act.