FBR holds second lucky draw of POS scheme: CAP greets customers of member brands for winning cash prizes

LAHORE: Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP) congratulates the customers of member brands who won a grand sum of Rs 15.3 million out of total Rs 53 million in cash prizes in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Point of Sale (POS) lucky draw.

The FBR held its second lucky draw of ongoing POS scheme for the customers of the integrated retailers across the country who send their “pakki receipt” to the FBR portal through mobile App to verify either the tax deducted against the sales invoice was reported and submitted to the national exchequer or not.

In the second lucky draw, one lucky customer of Naheed Supermarket, an integrated retailer and member of CAP, Muhammad Aslam won Rs one million as bumper prize. A total of 287 customers of CAP member brands won by purchasing from dozens of tax-compliant retailers.

The CAP appreciating the FBR efforts of documentation of the economy stated that the move to incentivize end consumers to keep track of whether retailers are issuing genuine invoices should yield positive results for the documentation of the retail sector.

This scheme also encourages shoppers to visit shops of tax-compliant retailers to claim cash prizes every month.

However, the Chairman of CAP Tariq Mehboob pointed out the loopholes and technical issues faced by the already POS-integrated retailers. A verifiable invoice from an integrated retailer can take up to 24-48 hours to be updated in FBR system due to syncing delays as well as genuine technical glitches between retailer system and FBR portal.

Therefore, a customer should wait for 2-3 days in case system generated invoice cannot be verified at the time of purchase which is often the case. In rare instances, it can take longer if invoice did not sync due to an error and needs to be corrected or resubmitted manually.

Around 3,400 retailers and 15,000 points-of-sale are now integrated as per FBR website and pace has increased but challenges to integrate more retailers remain especially related to lack of expertise of technology, and complex compliance procedures, of many small and medium-sized Tier-1 retailers as well as low-tech POS software which need to be upgraded or redeveloped.

Meanwhile, the integrated retailers are repeatedly facing issues with the new sales tax portal of FBR due to which filings are delayed. It is observed that field formations are issuing a daily barrage of notices of all types to already compliant businesses, many of which were already tax-compliant and POS integration is just a new way to report sales in real-time for them.

The issue is already raised by CAP and the Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) with the FBR. Instead of resolving the technical and operational issues faced by the POS integrated retailers, Tariq said that the FBR issued a new notification which allows FBR field officers to seal an integrated retailer’s premises without even a show-cause notice. As per section 150ZEO as per SRO 252/2022, FBR field officers now have the right to seal an integrated retailer’s premises at their discretion.

Where 1000s of invoices are issued in the case of large departmental stores or even 100s in case of others, if even 3-5 invoices do not get verified due to technical reasons, then the premises can be sealed without retailer having a chance to explain and de-sealed only after payment of a penalty.

Such harsh measures may badly affect the efforts towards creating a conducive business environment and can aggravate already high level of perceived harassment of existing taxpayers, he mentioned.

Currently, due to system glitches or other errors, the customers sometimes face issues in getting their invoice verified from the FBR system when they submit in Tax Assan App.

If the invoice is unverified than the customers have an option to report it. Once the customer reports it or during shop visit of FBR official, if the invoice falls in the category of unverified then based on a few such invoices enables the FBR officers to seal the business premises immediately.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022