1 Copyright © 2012 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

TaxOnlineTPIN Format & Migration

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Current TPIN Format

The current TPIN format followed by ZRA comprises of 13 digits– e.g. 1000006064707

First Digit is Type of Tax Payer – 1 for Limited Companies, – 2 for Foreign Incorporated Companies, – 3 for Partnership, – 4 for Individuals, – 5 for Foreign Individuals, – 6 for Government Agencies and – 7 for other types of Taxpayers

Second Digit is kept for duplicity count, it runs from – 0 for no duplicity, – 1 for 1 duplicate having same details, – 2 for 2 such duplicates and so on. The maximum count of duplicates as per ZRA

team has gone to 4 (one case for 9 also)

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Current TPIN Format (e.g. 1000006064707)

Third Digit to Eleventh Digit is the number as per taxpayer type– PACRA number for Limited Companies, Foreign Incorporated Companies,

Partnerships– NRC number for Sole Proprietors and Individuals– Certificate Number for NGO, PBO, Club, Association, Society, Ministry body issued

by Registrar of Societies or Ministry of Land or Ministry of Agriculture – Passport Number for Foreign Individuals or Work permits if they have

Twelfth and Thirteenth Digit is the two digit check number – generated by Combination of mathematical computation and Modulo 13 algorithm

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Our Observations & Proposition (e.g. 1000006064707)

First Digit – The type of taxpayer – This can be a separate field in database and there is no need to provide distinct

series of TPIN to different taxpayers. Second Digit – The duplicity count

– If we do away with generating TPIN using various ids from different departments, we don’t foresee any duplicates in future

Third Digit to Eleventh Digit – The number as per taxpayer type– We are generating TPIN using numbers generated by various departments like

PACRA, National Registration Office, Registrar of Societies, Ministry of Land, Ministry of Agriculture etc.

– We are running a risk as any of these agencies may go for computerization or if already computerized than may go for revamping of system and may alter their data structure for issuing numbers

– Few examples are PACRA is currently issuing 5 digit number and now they are planning to issue 13 digit unique number

– NRC is currently issuing 9 digit number and now they are planning to issue 10 digit unique number

– As these are external agencies and we do not have any control over their IT system nor their Business Processes

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Our Observations & Proposition (e.g. 1000006064707)

Twelfth and Thirteenth Digit – The two digit check number – Identified 147 check digit discrepancy cases in current database.

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Data Discrepancies in current database

Discrepancies for TPIN casesFor Individual

Sr No Data information Count

1 Resident TPIN from Zambia having TPIN but no NRC 4313

2 TPIN having invalid NRC number like "000000000" 6

3 Multiple TPIN having same NRC number for individual taxpayers 2588

4 Length of TPIN is less than 13 characters for individual

4-ACTIVE(Length-12 Char)

26-Retire(Length-2 char)

5 Tax payers having incorrect commence date (e.g - 13/09/5010, 21/04/0210) 26

6 Taxpayers having more than one same type of Tax Account 823

7 Records where TPIN format is not created as per NRC number of the individual 3786

For BusinessSr No Data information Count

8 Business taxpayers TPIN which does not have Business Registration Number 5951

9 TPIN having invalid Business Registration number like "000000000" and "0" 184

10 Multiple TPIN having same Business Registration Number 4471

11 Length of TPIN is less than 13 characters 1

12 Tax payers having incorrect commence date (e.g - 01/02/2207, 20/12/0200) 13

13 Taxpayers having more than one same type of Tax Account 3289

14Records where TPIN format is not created as per Business Registration number of the business taxpayers

5892

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Looking at all the above reasons, we propose to introduce a 10 digit number for TPIN, of which first 9 digits will be sequence number and last digit will be check digit.

– By doing this we can ensure for no dependency on any external agency, – We will keep all the numbers like NRC, PACRA number in our database in separate

fields and will run the duplicity checks on these numbers– TPIN would be independent of all these numbers– We are not keeping taxpayer category, taxpayer location etc. in TPIN and it will be

stored in separate fields.– 10digit TPIN will be a smaller in size and easier for taxpayer to memorize.

Our Proposition for new TPIN format

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Length for new and old TPIN

If we keep the length of new and old TPIN as 13:– If we keep the Length in the new software as similar to existing length of migrated

TPINs from ITAS and TARPS, i.e. 13 digit, there could be a probability of generation of duplicate TPINs which will not be accepted in the system

If we keep length of new TPIN either greater or smaller than 13 digits:1. There would be uniformity issues both in the system and database structure2. The system would be not able to do the client side length validation scripts and

every time the system has to have server trip to check the TPIN validity3. The system would not be able to do the check digit logic check at client side due to

non-uniformity and the system has to rely on server trips4. Due to the reasons 3 and 4 the performance of the system would be affected5. The banks would not be able to rely on check digits to ensure the correctness of

TPIN for e-Payment integration and will have to maintain the TaxOnline database at their end while accepting payments

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Migration & Challenges

The system would do this migration from old TPIN to generation of new TPIN within a span of a single day and print the new TPIN certificates. (Demo)

It will just be an administrative and change management challenge for the department for example.– Print and Communicate to taxpayer for new TPIN Certificates– Taxpayers may already have invoice book with current TPIN then they

have to reprint new invoice book with new TPIN number– If Taxpayers have given their old TPIN anywhere for mapping they will

have to update it with new TPIN number– Migrated and newly generate TPIN needs to be updated in ASYCUDA

system etc…

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Highlights in media for change in IT systems

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Highlights in media for change in IT systems

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Highlights in media for change in IT systems

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Highlights in media for change in IT systems

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Thank You

Thank You