ISLAMABAD: In a major development to register 3.2 million shopkeepers/traders, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has expanded the scope of registration to 42 cities including Faisalabad and Sialkot. Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that so far nearly 46,000 traders/shopkeepers have been registered with the FBR under the “Tajir Dost Scheme”. A large number of traders operate in Faisalabad, which was earlier excluded from the said scheme.
During the last video conference meeting between the FBR Chairman, Regional Tax Offices and traders, the business community has agreed to expand the scope of the scheme before implementation of any new kind of tax on traders. The registration process will now be started in 42 cities including Multan, Mardan, Sukkur, Sahiwal, Sargodha, DG Khan and Gujrat. Now, almost all big and small cities have been covered for the purpose of registration under the “Tajir Dost Scheme”. Meanwhile, the FBR will issue the draft notification on the proposed tables of indicative income on the basis of commercial properties valuation tables. The proposed tables are expected to be notified by July 15. The traders in each city will submit their comments on the draft SROs of the FBR.
During the meeting, most of the traders rejected the FBR’s scheme of payment of tax based on property values and threatened to go on strike. There was a deadlock between the FBR and traders, as the retailers were unable to give some alternate formula to the FBR for taxation of the shopkeepers. One of the proposals was to charge tax based on the categories of businesses, which was rejected by the FBR.
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“There was also an exchange of harsh words between the traders and tax officials on payment of taxes and threats by some trader’s representatives during online meeting”, sources said.
Muhammad Naeem Mir, Chief Coordinator of Tajir Dost Scheme-2024 intervened and proposed two options. Firstly, a simple tax return form for traders be notified. A simple form has been drafted for the shopkeepers. There should be a fixed fee of Rs 1200 as registration charges. The Tier-II category retailers should determine their turnover on self-assessment basis and file the simplified return form and pay turnover tax. However, the FBR rejected the proposal taking the plea that the tax authorities have to issue the notification by July 15.
The second option given by Mir was that the FBR should not immediately issue any SRO and determine indicative values of commercial properties in consultation with the traders and field offices.
The FBR should issue notifications in consultation with the traders’ representatives.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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