POS integration: FBR likely to protect taxpayers from harassment

LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has taken notice of harassing taxpayers under the Point of Sale (POS) integration, as a letter dated 17th December has directed to integrate only the ‘eligible’ Tier-1 Retailers (T-1Rs), said sources.

They said the Board has paid attention towards litigation because of the issuance of unnecessary notices to retailers and has directed that only the names of those retailers should be proposed for sales tax general orders (STGOs), which are eligible for integration but have not yet integrated.

The Board issues STGOs each month along with a list of integrate-able T-1Rs, who have not yet integrated. It has directed all the large tax offices (LTOs), corporate tax offices (CTOs) and regional tax offices (RTOs) that they would have to ensure that the eligible T-1Rs are registered with the FBR under the Sales Tax Act, 1990, and have sales tax registration numbers (STRNs). Also, the proposed names have not been included in any of the previous STGOs or granted exclusion, the letter added.

According to the sources, the field formations were not assessing the nature of businesses thoroughly for their integration under T-1Rs that has led to a lot of litigation and issuance of restraining orders by the courts. Also, they added, retailers have started approaching the courts against the imposition of fines by the field formations. When asked about the number of restraining orders issued by courts till date, they said, neither any such list is being maintained by the field formations nor shared with the Board.

Courts are issuing four to five orders daily against guesstimated pick and choose of taxpayers over the last two months, they replied when requested to quantify the volume of orders in specific terms.

En block notices are being served upon retailers on the basis of fake measurements of their areas of businesses as well as lists of those Lesco consumers who are paying a monthly bill of Rs1.2 million.

The actual situation would be clear after seven to eight months, which is yet in a flux, they added. It may be noted that the CTO Lahore integrated 200 T-1Rs so far while targeting approximately another 200 by the coming March. Meanwhile, multiple cases have reached the level of sealing the retail outlets after issuance of notices of fines up to Rs3 million.

The sources said Chairman FBR Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed is also due to arrive in the city on Friday to take up the issue with the field formations besides discussing in detail the issues like tax collection and revenue targets.

The Member Operations of the Board would accompany him. They said the chairman would hold meetings with the customs officials as well on budget collection and revenue targets.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021