LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) may revise revenue target downward for 3rd and 4th quarters keeping in view a fresh wave of Covid-19 and the upcoming Ramazan, reliable sources said.
According to sources, the upward revised targets have already been achieved by the Large Tax Office (LTO), Corporate Tax Office (CTO) and Regional Tax Office (RTO) Lahore. The Board may revise the revenue target for the upcoming 3rd and 4th quarters downward because of the high performance of all the tax offices during the first two quarters, they said.
The Board had revised upward the revenue target in November last for the next seven months. According to sources, the CTO Lahore has achieved the revised target of Rs16 billion for the second quarter of the current fiscal. Similarly, the LTO is also close to the revised target after collecting Rs103 billion by the end of the second quarter.
When asked about the factors behind achieving the revised upward targets, sources said the revised targets were achieved after a massive campaign for Point of Sale (POS) integration. It may be noted that the LTO Lahore has achieved 100 percent integration of major bakeries with POS system besides 91 Tier-1 retailers in textile, leather and show sectors. Besides, the LTO Lahore has also imposed Rs29 million fines against the violators besides sealing the outlets.
The Board has also announced a prize scheme mechanism for consumers to promote purchase of consumer items through POS integrated machines. Also, the Board has announced an attraction of imposing 12 percent sales tax on all the invoices generated through POS system against 17 percent GST. It has also launched a campaign to promote POS system amongst consumers by installing informative banners in leading shopping malls.
Besides a massive campaign for POS integration, the enforcement zone has also played a vital role in pursuing the tax evaders during the second quarter of the current fiscal, which proved very useful in terms of revenue generation. Raids on premises under section 38 and live monitoring under section 40B was a regular feature, which proved fruitful and all the tax offices were able to meet the upward revised targets.
Sources said the Board has entered into a comfortable zone so far as achieving the overall revenue target for the current fiscal year is concerned. Therefore, it may revise the target for the third and fourth quarters downward because of a dull business activity in Ramazan. However, no formal announcement has been made so far, they added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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