ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Tuesday directed the chief commissioners of the Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) to take strict enforcement measures for increasing the number of big retailers integrated with the point of sale (POS) system.

In the second phase of video conferencing with the chief commissioners of the RTOs, FBR Chairman Asim Ahmad reviewed the progress made over integration of the retailers with the POS system. The tax authorities also reviewed the revenue collection position of the RTOs during September 2022.

On September 19, the FBR held video conferencing with the Chief Comissioners of the Large Taxpayers Units.

The Chief Commssioners’ informed that the POS scheme to attract taxpayers and top Tier-1 retailers is progressing successfully which is evident from the fact that the number of verified invoices was increasing with each passing month.

Through the Sales Tax General Order (STGO) 3 of 2022, the FBR notified a list of 81 unregistered retailers (Tier-1), who are required to be integrated with the FBR’s POS system. These 81 identified retailers are still operating out of the documented regime and not depositing collected sales tax from consumers into the national kitty.

Last month, the FBR had issued a list of 114 big retailers (Tier-1), which are required to be integrated with the FBR’s POS system and were denied 60 per cent input tax credit in case of non-integration. The number of big retailers (Tier-1) now stood at 81, which are required to be integrated with the POS system. The board has decided to raise sales tax demand against these big retailers (Tier-1), who are still not integrated with the FBR’s POS system by the deadline of September 10, 2022.

Upon filing of the sales tax return for the month of September 2022 for all hereby notified Tier-I retailers not having integrated, their input tax claim would be disallowed, the FBR warned retailers.

The FBR’s notification stated that in order to operationalise this important provision of law, a system-based approach has been adopted, whereby, all Tier-I retailers are required to be integrated with the FBR.

The procedure of exclusion from this list of identified Tier-I shall apply as laid down in STGO 17 of 2022 dated May 13, 2022, the FBR added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022