Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme: RTO Rawalpindi agrees to take major stakeholders on board

As a result of major initiative of Regional Tax Office (RTO) Rawalpindi to promote Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS), business community of Rawalpindi and related associations have agreed to take all the major stakeholders on board through interactions with all major trade sectors and markets.
It is learnt that the RTO Rawalpindi here on Friday held a detailed session with Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (RCCI) to discuss Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS) related issues. Officials of the RTO were able to convince the business community of city to chalk out an effective strategy to convent maximum non-filer traders into filers of income tax returns. Chamber endorsed the viewpoint of the RTO Rawalpindi that an effective outreach strategy is necessary for smooth implementation of the government's initiative of broadening the tax base and documentation of economy.
In order to streamline FBR's campaign "Outreach to Traders-VTCS" at RTO RWP following initiatives/developments have been initiated. A detailed session has been held with the president of RCCI and his team. In this meeting all VTCS related issues generally and outreach related issues have been discussed specifically. This initiative is primarily aimed at working out a doable outreach strategy for the target clientele. The following steps have been agreed in this regard.
RCCI shall start forthwith its media campaign through persuasive advertisements in the print media. This exercise would be aiming at sensitising the potential filers under VTCS.
It has further been agreed that at the first step RCCI and its related trade associations would take all the major stakeholders on board, through focused and frequent interactions with representatives of all major trade sectors and markets. This first step could have been taken by RTO RWP but it may have triggered any alerts/reservations among the traders, therefore for a smooth start RCCI has agreed to the proposal.
RTO shall hold next meeting with RCCI in early next week wherein progress made by then would be discussed. In this forthcoming meeting traders feedback would also be discussed and queries raised by them shall be addressed by RTO.
All major Trade Associations at Rawalpindi and other civil Districts are being approached with the request to intimate the time, date(s) and avenues for outreach meetings.
All interaction with RCCI shall be made electronically so as to save time and to ensure quick communication.
All outreach activities shall be properly archived for record and timely projection in the print & electronic media. Services of Local TV channels and Cable Operators shall be utilised extensively.
Javed Iqbal CIR, Zone-I RTO (Tele No.051-9292639 cell No.0300-5123089) has been designated as in charge VTCS cell RTO RWP and he shall be assisted by tax officers, sources added.