ISLAMABAD: As the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is ready to issue a notification to impose tax on shopkeepers/ retailers, Muhammad Naeem Mir, chief coordinator of Tajir Dost Scheme, Wednesday, offered FBR an alternative documentation plan to avoid agitation and strikes.
The FBR is in the final stages of drafting of the SRO to impose tax on small shopkeepers and retail outlets.
However, the chief coordinator of the Tajir Dost Scheme has focused on registration and return filing from non-filer shopkeepers.
Tajir Dost Scheme: Registration process to begin in 42 cities: FBR
On the conclusion of an interaction with the FBR, the chief coordinator of the Tajir Dost Scheme told Business Recorder that the plan would easily register 3.2 million retailers without strikes and agitation.
The monthly tax on the basis of commercial property valuation is impracticable and unjustified. This FBR’s proposed tax collection system would only result in complications and confusion in each market of the country.
Shopkeepers would search for their respective commercial properties’ valuation tables for payment of tax on the basis of indicative income. There would be unnecessary disputes between the FBR and the traders.
Through the Finance Act 2024, the FBR has imposed a 2.5 percent advance income tax on un-registered retailers, which shopkeepers apprehended would further increase prices of essential commodities. At the same time, retail outlets are not in a position to further pay monthly tax.
Under the alternate plan, Mir informed that the FBR should immediately issue the agreed income tax return form in Urdu for Tier-II retail outlets.
The Urdu form is ready and needs to be notified by the FBR immediately. The retailers would file this return and become filers. The FBR can charge a fixed registration fee of Rs1,200 from each shopkeeper and retailer to become a filer. The FBR should charge 1.5 percent turnover tax from retailers/shopkeepers based on the turnover declared in their annual income tax return form.
The tier-II category retailers should determine their turnover on self-assessment basis and file the simplified return form and pay turnover tax. There would be no facility of tax credit available to the newly-registered shopkeepers, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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