POS invoice verification expands by 62.7pc in February

The invoices verified by customers, who shopped from outlets integrated with Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Point of Sale (POS) system, have increased by 62.7 per cent during the month of February 2022 as compared to last month (January).

During the month of February about 249,000 invoices were verified by customers who shopped from outlets integrated with FBR POS system as against 153,000 in January 2022, according to Monthly Economic Update and Outlook, March 2022 released by the finance ministry.

According to the report, the ongoing campaign and the prize scheme continued to gain momentum as numbers kept growing up.

Meanwhile, the number of customers who successfully verified their invoices has also jumped from 27,000 in January to around 39,000 in February, showing growth of 44.4 per cent.

The report termed it as a phenomenal increase in public participation and expressed the hope that it was likely to grow further with every passing day.

It is pertinent to mention here that FBR had launched an intensive awareness campaign on the mainstream national media to educate and engage consumers to ensure that tax collected from them at the point of sale is deposited into the state exchequer and not pocketed by the retailers themselves.

The campaign also encompasses a prize scheme worth Rs53 million to be disbursed among 1007 lucky winners through a transparent computerized ballot being held on 15th of every month at FBR headquarters, Islamabad.

As a result of strong enforcement by FBR Field Formations across Pakistan, out of around 4,200 identified as Tier-1 Retailers, over 3,600 have already integrated their business operations with FBR POS System.

Their 17,000 outlets with over 19,500 cash counters are fully integrated with POS system which lends FBR the facility to digitally monitor their sales and thus ensure that sales tax being collected from customers is being actually deposited into state exchequer, without fail, it added.

Meanwhile, FBR is all set to launch yet another out of box digital intervention for broadening of tax base.

FBR has already collected information from various sources about the assets and expenditures of persons who are outside the tax net. This information would be made available to such persons through FBR’s “Tax Asaan” portal.

The board has taken a further initiative to ensure facilitation in the filing of a tax return by new taxpayers for broadening of tax base by signing a memorandum of understanding with the Pakistan Tax Bar during the first week of February this year.