Number of taxpayers touches 4,284 mark: SRB registers another 813 service providers

Wednesday, 03 October 2012 (Daily Business Recorder) YASIR BABBAR KARACHI: Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) has registered 813 more service providers in last few months in various sectors, Business Recorder learnt on Tuesday. Official sources told BR that with increase of 813, the number of SRB registered taxpayers has reached 4284. The SRB operation team registered these service providers in various sectors - hotels, caterers, franchise, cafes, courier, restaurants, shipping agents, clubs, freight forwarders, stock brokers, service providing companies and individuals in the field of contractual execution, money exchangers, developers/builders, etc, sources said. Sources said the operation team registered these new service providers from the list of Intelligence and Survey Wing. This wing of the SRB had presented a list of newly-identified taxpayers to the authorities a few months ago. The I&S wing had identified 8,685 service providing companies and individuals of various sectors in order to register them under the net of Sindh sales tax on services. According to said list available with Business Recorder 240 service providing companies and individuals had been identified in telecommunication and franchise, 213 in advertisement, 99 in courier, 16 in banks, 33 in insurance, 18 in non-banking, two in investment banks and 12 in investment advisory. The I&S wing identified only one company in foreign exchange, 46 in stock brokers, five in Modarabas, 12 in brokerage, 514 in hotels, 2,629 in restaurants and cafes, 53 in clubs, 495 in caterers, 54 in terminal operators, 1,142 in custom agents, 41 in stevedores, 337 in construction and 961 in property developers/builders. The list further mentioned that the Intelligence and Survey Wing identified 691 service providing companies and individuals in the field of contractual execution, 338 in freight forwarders, 107 in ship chandeliers, 404 shipping agents, 75 CAs and audit sector, 76 contractors, 31 guesthouses and 68 forex dealers, the list added. Sources further said the I&S wing had identified 8,685 service providing companies and individuals from the data provided by Pral, FBR, E&T and EOBI. The field team of this wing also identified a large number of companies and individuals of various sectors included in the same list, they said. Sources are of the view that with increase in tax-base, SRB will be able to collect more revenue from service providers and the target of this FY (Rs32 billion) would be achieved easily.