Karachi: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced its decision to accede to the government’s request for the imposition of a fee — to be paid by the bank to the latter — on all online payments of taxes and duties conducted by banking customers across the country, a news source reported. Further, SBP Director Finance Qadir Baksh has explicitly stated that the central bank would collectively pay the fee, which will not be deducted from customers’ accounts; with this effort being geared to facilitate the government in its attempts to document the national economy.
This provision will come into effect from January 1, 2020, Baksh added. He revealed that the SBP had also been encouraging other banks to set up online tax payment portals for facilitating their corporate clients in their tax submission efforts.
He added that this requirement was essential to achieving the planned growth in digital tax payments. There is no cap on the amount of online payments that customers can make for taxes and duties; unlike digital payments from one bank to another, Baksh said.
The SBP official said that the bank wanted corporate clients to resort to e-payment options for paying their due taxes and duties in a bid to increase online payment collections to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
