The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has deputed a team of senior sales tax officials to prepare 'Value-Added Tax (VAT) law, 2007' for simplifying all existing sales tax/federal excise returns, statements and declarations.
Sources told Business Recorder on Monday that the 'VAT law 2007' would replace the Sales Tax Act, 1990 from 2007-08. The CBR has constituted a 'Process Simplification Committee' to review the entire sales tax law with a view to remove ambiguities, and making the procedure simple.
The committee would be headed by Iftikhar Qutab, Collector, Sales Tax and Federal Excise, Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU), Karachi.Its members are Shafquat Mehmood Ahmed, Collector, Enforcement, Karachi; Abdur Rashid Bajwa, Collector, Sales Tax and Federal Excise, Regional Tax Office (RTO), Peshawar; Abdul Hameed Memon, Secretary, Sales Tax and Federal Excise and Aamir Amin Bhatti, Deputy Collector, Collectorate of Sales Tax and Federal Excise, Lahore.
Following are the 'Terms of Reference' for the 'Process Simplification Committee':First, it would redraft sales tax statutes and regulations. Second, it would redesign all formats of returns, declarations and statements, etc. Third, it would adopt best international practices for sales tax legislation/system. Fourth, it would simplify the statutory and regulatory machinery of sales tax.
Fifth, it would ensure futuristic compatibility of returns, declarations, statements and sales tax documents with the Information Technology (IT) applications.
Sources said that the committee would carry out its work in two phases. First, the committee would draft the 'law' by formally introducing term 'VAT' during the next month. The revised formats of all relevant returns, declarations and statements etc will be finalised during next month.
The committee would submit the draft of these two components of sales tax law to CBR immediately on completion along with a summary of salient features in comparison to the present system, sources added.