The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has ordered all the banks in the country not to demand national Tax Number (NTN) from customers to open bank account or any other banking service.

SBP said that there are several complaints that many banks are not opening the bank accounts of their customers as they don’t have National Tax Number (NTN) while Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is the issuing authority of NTN.

It is ordered by SBP that banking services should not be refused in the absence of NTN as opening of bank account is necessary to obtain NTN according to the criteria set by FBR. It is also written in the circular that banks should make it easy for customers to open their accounts that would help them to get NTN number from FBR.