LAHORE: Around 500,000 countrywide retailers with a tax potential of about Rs 1,500 billion are the target of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to ensure growth in revenue generation, said Imran Hayee Khan, focal person for the drive in Regional Tax Office (RTO) Lahore.

Talking to Business Recorder, he said, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also stressed the government to bring them into the tax net for a growth in revenue generation. At present, Pakistan is collecting Rs 5,500 billion taxes annually while it has a potential of generating Rs 12,000 billion, and once achieved, the country would be able to fill the gap of Rs 2,500 billion in revenue generation and expenditure, he added.

"The IMF has told the government that there are 400,000 to 500,000 retailers in Pakistan with a tax potential of 1000-1500 billion that would be beneficial to the economy once tapped by the Board," he added.

He said the Board has introduced the Point of Sale (POS) integration system to monitor sales tax and it is specific to the Tier-1 retailers who generate bulk of invoices but they are blamed with the charge of suppressing or concealing the invoices. The target of the drive is to minimize this trend, he said, adding: "POS integration is not a new tax."

However, he pointed out that the ongoing trust deficit on the part of taxpayers has led to the controversy, which the Board is trying to overcome through an aggressive awareness drive. Even the tax practitioners are confused on the concept and the RTO is going to hold a seminar for them in the next week.

He said the taxpayers would have to understand that the government would opt for low hanging fruits of increasing utility tariffs and petrol prices in case they kept evading tax. The POS integration system would ensure both the invoices and inventories of Tier-1 retailers, which would be equivalent to buttering the toast from both sides, as they would be able to control theft at their outlets, he added. Besides, he said, the Board has issued SRO 779(I)/2020 to bring sales 12 services on record through Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) in major cities of the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021