The revenue authorities will recast the policy on appointment of VAT consultants to prevent alleged abuse of licence for this service and appoint more such go-betweens in the tax collection.
Officials at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) said the policy amendment would help meet the existing need for an adequate number of skilled VAT (value-added tax) consultants.
These consultants play go-between assisting both the NBR and the businesses in matters of payment of VAT and submission of VAT returns.
They will work between VAT officials and businesses as facilitators by obtaining licences under the upcoming amended policy.
Officials said the revenue board had already started the process of reviewing the existing policy by forming a committee and compiling suggestions from all field-level VAT offices.
A senior VAT official said the policy would be amended to incorporate provisions for ensuring proper compliance of the VAT consultants, making them accountable to the VAT-payers and VAT-takers.
Currently, there are only 72 VAT consultants to support the businesses. "The number is too insufficient to provide support to the businesses compared to that of the two other wings of the NBR," he said.
There are some 864,000 businesses registered with the VAT department and they have Business Identification Number (BIN).
According to the NBR data, the income-tax wing has 23,000 income-tax practitioners and the Customs have 9,000 clearing and forwarding agents to support taxpayers.
"As there are several allegations about undue interference of the middlemen in tax-related issues, the NBR has decided to review the policy to plug holes of abuse of the use of VAT-consultant licence," the official further said.
A five-member committee formed by the NBR to scrutinise the VAT-consultant-licensing policy recently placed its report, he added.
In the report, the committee recommended including licence- renewal fees, performance report of the VAT consultants, submission of VAT returns to probe VAT payment against consultancy fees.
It has also proposed incorporating details on the offences of suspension and cancellation of licences and punitive measures for abusing the licences.
The official said the VAT consultant-licensing policy was framed in 1991 under the VAT law that remained unchanged until now.
Half the existing VAT consultants are former VAT officials with more than 15 years' experience who are not required to sit for examination to qualify for obtaining licence.
The rest 36 consultants obtained the licence through scrutiny process, he added.
The NBR would start the process of taking the test for issuing licence to the VAT consultants after amendment of the policy, the official said.
