Peshawar and Rawalpindi MTUs start functioning

Medium taxpayer units (MTUs) at Rawalpindi and Peshawar have started functioning from Thursday, July 1, 2004 to facilitate the taxpayers in their day to day affairs.
The staff of MTUs will deal with the assessment of taxpayers, previously done by the circle officers in the old system
The Member Tax Policy and Reforms CBR, M S Lal said here on Thursday that the Bureau has started the implementation of tax administration reform framework. On the income tax side, the new concept of medium taxpayer units has been introduced in all major cities.
Following the government's policy of transparency, facilitation of the public and reduction in discretion of public officials, CBR prepared a functional model for income tax operations and launched a pilot project at Lahore in 2003 as Model Taxpayer Unit.This model unit has been the testing ground for the fully automated and integrated income tax system including monitoring and management protocols as developed in-house by CBR, he maintained.
The system has been further upgraded during one-year period, which was under testing in the MTU Lahore. Taxpayers' feedback on the MTU has also been positive.
M S Lal said the CBR has established a new Medium Taxpayer Unit (MTU) at Rawalpindi that will have the jurisdiction of previous Rawalpindi zone.
Instead of circles, the new MTU will have enforcement unit, audit unit and taxpayers service unit. Chaudhry Nazir Ahmed has been appointed as commissioner of the MTU at Rawalpindi. Other personnel are also identified and after training into the new concept of functioning with focus on taxpayers' facilitation, they will commence work at these locations. From July 1 onwards, no tax assessment will be made at Rawalpindi by the circle officers, or under the old system.
The CBR Member Tax Policy and reforms said that a new MTU has also been established at Peshawar from July 1, 2004, which will have jurisdiction of previous Peshawar Zone.
He said that no tax assessment would be made at Peshawar by the previous circle officers or under the old system from July 1, onwards. Hence, the audit unit of the new MTU will take over all the assessment work from that date, Lal added.