The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Web-Portal is allowing automated approval of the revision of the sales tax returns to the taxpayers without going to the commissioners, giving a major relief to the business and trade.Sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) has granted this facility to the sales tax return filers to facilitate users of FBR Web Portal.
At present, there are two ways for revision of the sales tax returns. Where taxpayers want to pay more tax through the revised return, automated approval is granted by the system without routing through the concerned commissioner. Secondly, where there is no addition in tax only then the request is electronically approved by the commissioners.
According to the FBR, the module to make amendments in the Sales Tax Return has been available since the inception of e-FBR portal in 2007. In order to check foul play by unscrupulous elements the process for making amendments involves prior approval in the system by the concerned office in the field before amendment is allowed by the system. It is an international best practice to make the amendment process more secure so that abuse can be checked. The module for allowing amendment is also available for more than two years. However, at any point in time there is always a certain backlog with respect to the pending requests.