KARACHI: Clearing agents have urged the governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the president of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to make operational five branches as announced recently for receiving the payment of duty and taxes as taxpayers facing immense difficulties as only one branch is not sufficient.
In this regard, Faisal Mushtaq, General Secretary, Karachi Customs Agents Association (KCAA) through a letter urged the SBP governor and NBP president to resolve the issues of taxpayers in paying their liabilities and order the concerned the staff of five NBP branches to facilitate the taxpayers.
It is worth mention that in an order issued by Muhammad Farooq, Senior Vice President, NBP had announced opening of five branches of the bank included: Main Branch Karachi; Model Branch Clifton Karachi; Karachi Stock Exchange Branch; Awami Markaz – Shahrah-e-Faisal Branch; and Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi.
The NBP VP in his order said that to facilitate the taxpayers the bank had deployed the WeBOC system at the branches where taxpayers could deposit their duty and taxes.
The clearing agents made their demands as at present only one branch at Custom House is operational where taxpayers have to wait about four to six hours to make payments especially when the mercury on its peak and taxpayers normally in the state of fasting.
Faisal Mushtaq in his statement said that this situation was prevailing for the past several years and authorities had been approached to resolve the issue. “But so far no action has been taken in this regard,†he said.
He said that the National Bank had trained the staff at the nominated branches for receiving the payments but till to date they were not operational because they were not issued authority letters. “Due to non-responsive attitude of the NBP the taxpayers compelled to pay their payment at only one branch, which resulted in long queues and lot of hassles,†Mushtaq said.
SBP governor, NBP president urged to make operational five nominated branches for receiving duty and taxes
