The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has found that the active and e-enrolled importers, exporters, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and service providers are not fully compliant in e-filing of sales tax returns during first quarter of 2010-2011.
The FBR's recent report on 'Sales Tax Compliance by Taxpayers revealed that the sales tax audit of importers, exporters, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and services sector is necessary as they are enrolled with the e-filing system, but some of the registered persons are not electronically filing their sales tax returns.
There are 94,727 total e-rolled registrants of sales tax under various categories, while the filers are 83,496 during July-September, 2010, thus, the compliance ratio is 88.1 percent. The manufacturing sector has exhibited higher compliance of 91.3 percent while the compliance of all other categories ranged between 81.2 to 89.6 percent. Though the compliance ratio seems encouraging, but it should be 100 percent because all the registrants are e-rolled and active taxpayers and there seem no cogent reasons for non filing. Therefore, it warrants for an effective audit of all the sectors.
As compared to 25,568 registered manufacturers, 23,351 filed their sales tax returns electronically during first quarter of 2010-2011, reflecting compliance of 91.3 percent. A total of 26,882 importers are enrolled with the e-filing system, but 24,083 filed their sales tax returns, reflecting compliance of 89.6 percent. Out of 6,089 exporters registered with the sales tax department, 5,256 filed their sales tax returns, showing compliance ratio of 86.3 percent. In case of 5,124 distributors enrolled with the Web-Portal, 4,430 have e-field their returns during this period, reflecting compliance of 86.5 percent. A total of 19,118 wholesalers have been registered with the e-filing system. Contrary to this, 16,562 have filed their returns, showing compliance level of 86.6 percent. Out of 3,496 registered retailers with the e-filing system, 2,953 filed their returns, showing compliance of 84.5 percent. The same trend has been observed in the services sector where a total of 8,450 service providers have been registered with the Web-portal, but 6,861 filed their returns, reflecting compliance of 81.2 percent.