The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is contemplating a new registration scheme for shopkeepers and traders following the lack of success of the Tajir Dost Scheme, Business Recorder reported.Â
Sources suggest that the new initiative could be announced in the 2025-26 federal budget. However, Muhammad Naeem Mir, the chief coordinator of the Tajir Dost Scheme, disagreed with the need for a new scheme.Â
the FBR has integrated 9,834 large retailers into the Point of Sales (POS) system by March 2025. This includes 738 restaurants and 506 leather and textile retailers, as part of efforts to document transactions of Tier-I retailers, particularly in the hotel and restaurant sectors.
Mir pointed out that the introduction of Section 236G and Section 236H in the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 during the last budget already addressed the issue by reducing the advance tax rate on purchases and sales for registered traders.
Under Section 236G, the advance tax rate on purchases from manufacturers and commercial importers was reduced from 2 percent (for non-filers) to 0.1 percent (for filers). Similarly, Section 236H lowered the tax on sales to retailers from 2.5 percent to 0.5 percent for registered traders. Non-filers, however, are still subject to the higher tax rates of 2 percent and 2.5 percent under both sections.
Mir emphasized that the FBR could enforce return filing for unregistered retailers using data from Sections 236G and 236H, which could generate significantly more revenue than the Rs 50 billion projected from the Tajir Dost Scheme. He added that approximately 70,000 to 75,000 retailers had been registered under the previous scheme.
He also noted that the FBR’s new approach focuses on registering larger retailers rather than smaller ones, making the registration of very small shopkeepers a lesser priority.
