LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will hold the balloting of Point of Sale (POS) in the city on April 15, said sources from Regional Tax Office (RTO) Lahore.
They said the chairman FBR would be chief guest on the occasion. Chief Commissioner RTO Lahore confirmed the development, saying that the balloting is likely to take place at Alhamra Hall on The Mall Road.
Meanwhile, he said, the RTO Lahore has made a recovery of Rs 9 million against the penalties imposed on Tier-1 Retailers in the month of March against Rs 25 million in February.
He said the penalties have been imposed for the failure of T-1Rs to integrate with the POS integration system of the Board.
It may be noted that RTO Lahore had started monitoring sales of Tier-1 Retailers (T-1Rs), resisting integration with Point of Sale (POS) system. Monitoring teams were deputed on leading stores and bakeries.
He said the RTO Lahore was pursuing 2700 T-1Rs for integration with POS system. The T-1Rs have back and forth linkages, which would be helpful in bringing potential taxpayers to the system at a fast pace, he said.
According to him, the RTO had integrated 57 retailers in December 2021, followed by 76 in January 2021, 112 in February 2021 and 120 in March 2022.
He said the RTO Lahore has planned a crackdown against superstores in the city during the holy month of Ramazan. He said tax officials would also be deputed on these stores under section 40B to monitor their sales. Meanwhile, he added, tax officials would also make mystery shopping to assess actual sales of these superstores.
He said there are around 90 superstores in the city out of which 20 have already been integrated with the POS system. Notices have been served upon the rest of the lot, he added.
The chief commissioner has also informed that the RTO Lahore has issued 528 applications from retailers seeking exclusion certificate from the POS integration system. Out of them, he said, requests of 35 applicants have been turned down while accepting the remaining 470.
The chief commissioner said the objective of integration is to ensure of ease of doing business as well as tax collection through education of taxpayers by highlighting pros and cons of paying taxes accurately.
Nasir said the Board has made a policy shift by designating the role of internal ombudsman to field formations to resolve the issues of taxpayers instead of compelling them to approach the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) or higher courts for a relief.
“We are holding Khuli Kutchehris with this mindset over the last two years to remove reservations of taxpayers towards the initiatives of the Board”, he added.
He said the idea is to remove misconceptions of taxpayers towards their tax responsibilities, which has already resulted into a stuck up of Rs3500 billion of tax revenue in stay orders by the courts.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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