KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday asked the big retailers to ensure installation of its point-of-sale invoicing app into their systems by December 1 to report turnover with the tax authority on real-time basis.
If the retailers fail to link their systems with the FBR, they would not be entitled to the reduced 14% sales tax, according to the FBR’s notification.
The FBR, in a statutory regulatory order (SRO), made it mandatory for tier-1 retailers to provide real-time reporting of their sales to the tax authority from December 1, 2019. The revenue body issued the SRO (1203(I)/2019) to amend Sales Tax Rules 2006 in order to make integration of sales app mandatory for the retailers to facilitate tax payment.
Tier-I retailers comprise those that operate a unit of a national or international chain of stores; retailers operating in an air-conditioned shopping mall, plaza or centre, excluding kiosks; retailers whose cumulative electricity bill during the immediately preceding 12 consecutive months exceeds Rs600,000; and wholesalers-cum-retailers engaged in bulk import and supply of consumer goods on a wholesale basis to the retailers as well as on a retail basis to the general body of consumers.
FBR previously said retailers don’t need to purchase any new machine to get linked with this system. “They can get linked by simply downloading an application in their existing machines,” the revenue body said in an advertisement on POS invoicing system.
“We have only targeted those retailers who are doing business with store chains or in big malls,” said FBR Inland Revenue Member Dr Hamid Atiq Sarwar.
He said the FBR would no longer stick to the 1,000 square feet definition of big retailers as sales of some business, located in small-sized shops, were in millions of rupees.
The FBR further said the system has already been running for over a year in around 4,000 outlets of 70 famous top textile and leather brands.
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Important question how to make sure the Sales Tax is paid. FBR has never checked the thermal coated paper bill invoice with the name of the merchant/retailer bear the Sales Tax registration for long long time. The thermal coated paper which is the invoice is a very disguising technique which fades with UV light temperature and after some time it will wipe out. SAP software and all apart the important thing is the thermal coated paper usage and whether it bears the Sales Tax registration or not? Why there was no registration No.? Why did they use thermal coated paper? No MNC retailing chain thermal coated paper. Why the local chain use thermal coated paper, and was not objected.