PESHAWAR: Continuing with monthly computer ballot for its innovative POS Invoicing Prize Scheme, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) successfully organised its seventh successive lucky draw here on Friday.
In addition to 1,017 lucky winners bagging prizes worth over Rs54million, another 10 individuals won the prize of Rs100,000 each, sponsored by Metro Stores Pakistan for its valued customers.
In this regard, the 7th lucky draw ceremony was organized by Regional Tax Office Peshawar in collaboration with FBR Islamabad at a local hotel, with Member Public Relations FBR Islamabad Sardar Ali Khawaja as the chief guest.
Besides, Chief Commissioner FBR Peshawar Khawaja Ahmad Marwat, Chief Collector Customs Peshawar Raza Ali Khan, General Manager Metro Stores Pakistan Muhammad Aamir Shah, SCCI chief Hasnain Khurshid Ahmad, former FPCCI president Ghazanfar Bilour, president Tax Bar Association Haji Muhstaq, FBR Zonal Commissioners, Customs collectors, members tax bar association, traders, industrialists, and retailers participated in the ceremony.
It may be noted that this unique monthly lucky draw by FBR is now being held in major cities across Pakistan to engage relevant stakeholders and mobilise public participation, thus to maximise tax compliance by the retail sector. In his keynote, Sardar Ali Khawaja thanked the FPCCI for hosting 7th POS Computerised Ballot at Peshawar and highlighted the pivotal role of such meaningful synergies in bridging trust deficit between FBR and taxpayers.
Sardar Khawaja informed the participants that FBR had been vigorously pursuing its drive for digitisation, transparency, and automation not only to document the economy but also to plug revenue leakages through a transparent tax system.
He said that FBR will continue to maximise tax compliance through various innovative initiatives including POS Invoicing Prize Scheme. He asked the tax bar association, trading community and relevant stakeholders to remove misperceptions about FBR and tax collecting authorities.
Sardar Khawaja said the business community has played a vital role in economic development through paying various taxes. However, he stressed that a timely payment of all forms of taxes is crucial to pull the country out from the prevailing economic crisis. “It was rightly said here that it is highly difficult for FBR to achieve its revenue collection targets without support of the business community,” he said.
Highlighting the significance of the Point of Sale (POS) system, the senior FBR official urged the business community to cooperate with FBR to make this scheme a big success.
The participants were told that this innovative prize scheme was launched to digitally monitor the sales made by Tier-1 retailers across Pakistan to ensure that tax collected from customers was duly deposited into the exchequer.
Earlier, Chief Commissioner RTO Peshawar Khurshid Marwat in his welcome speech thanked the members of business community, representatives of relevant stakeholder, officials and others for participation in the gathering.
He said the RTO has achieved its revenue collection target by June 2022 with support of business community.
On the occasion while talking to Business Recorder, SCCI chief Hasnain Khurshid Ahmad said that they have assured FBR of full co-operation. He hoped that all members of SCCI and business community at large will stand behind FBR in collecting due taxes from across Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022