State Bank of Pakistan

Other Reforms:

SBP is also facilitating other government agencies in bringing about various reforms regarding the Ease of Doing Business Reforms initiatives. For instance, in the Paying Taxes indicator of EODB, SBP has been collaborating with Federal Board of Revenue and provincial authorities to facilitate the implementation of the reforms.

Under Section 21 of SBP Act, 1956, State Bank of Pakistan acts as the banker to the Government; collects taxes, duties, fees, levies and other receipts and makes various payments on behalf of Government. At present NBP and BOP are SBP’s two agents for provision of banking services to the Governments; BOP provides banking services to Government of Punjab only.

Online Collection of Government Taxes through ADCs

SBP worked with FBR, AGPR, CGA and 1link to connect their IT systems using 1link’s Bill Payment System (BPS). 1Link, FBR and SBP are connected through dedicated private Fiber Optic lines for secured transmission of data.
Commercial banks were advised to add FBR as the Biller in 1link’s Biller Module (http://www.sbp.org.pk/acc/2017/C5.pdf). As a result, taxpayers are now able to pay their taxes online by using Internet Banking, OTC or ATMs.
The overall mechanism for online collection of FBR taxes was tested end to end at SBP, FBR and 1-Link level before it was made live on 21st March 2018.
Process flow: taxpayer visits website of FBR and generates Payment System Identification Number (PSID). Then by using Internet Banking or ATMs selects FBR as biller and enters PSID to fetch the payment details on the screen. After confirmation of payment details, taxpayer push ‘OK’ button to pay the taxes, accordingly his / her account with the bank is debited for onward credit to the respective Government Account.
Subsequently, all the banks have been advised to activate the 1-Link’s Over the Counter (OTC) portal at their branches to facilitate their clients, particularly for corporate clients and SMEs for payment of FBR taxes and duties i.e. http://www.sbp.org.pk/acc/2018/CL5.pdf
Above mechanism has significantly facilitated the taxpayers in payment of their taxes.

Online Collection of Taxes & Receipts of Provincial Governments

The first project of online tax collection was developed for Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) through collaborative efforts of SRB, SBP, NBP and 1link in 2017. SRB taxpayers can now pay their taxes online using their internet banking accounts or through ATMs. NBP is the settlement Bank for SRB for collection of taxes through ADCs.
Subsequently, SBP in collaboration with 1link, Government of Punjab (GoPb) has decided to digitize the receipts of Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA). In this regard, SBP has issued a Circular Letter to all commercial banks & MFBs to add GoPb as biller in the bill payment facility of 1link at earliest but not later than 31st January 2019. Web link: http://www.sbp.org.pk/acc/2018/CL-11.pdf
Further, SBP has planned to approach other Provincial Governments to introduce mechanism of Online Collection of receipts and taxes for their taxpayers.

Online payment of Pension and Salary of Government Employees

Under the Federal Government’s initiative of ‘Public Financial Management and Accountability’ in 2017-18, project of online payment of pension and salary of Government employees has been started.
SBP has planned to process these payments through SBP’s project of Micro Payment Gateway (MPG).
In the first phase, the salaries and pension of Islamabad based Federal Government Employees will be processed; expected project completion timeline is 31st December 2019.