The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has issued a significant ruling in favour of tier-I retailers, directing the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to stop sealing shops and to address ongoing technical issues with the Point-of-Sale (POS) system, according to a news report.
A key point in the ruling was the criticism of FBR field officers’ lack of technical training, which prevented them from resolving specific system-related issues. The ruling follows a complaint filed by the Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP), which raised concerns about repeated system failures, high integration costs, profile disconnections, missing invoice uploads, and a lack of coordination between FBR and Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL).
The FTO’s decision emphasised that no retail outlets should be sealed until all technical issues have been resolved. The FTO also recommended that the FBR work closely with CAP to address future POS-related glitches and improve enforcement strategies for smoother compliance.
The FTO urged the FBR to improve coordination with PRAL and develop a system to alert retailers about potential disruptions, such as POS disconnections or token expirations, to prevent sudden shutdowns.
Additionally, the FTO recommended that POS security tokens should have a validity of at least five years, with advance notice to retailers before expiry. The FTO also highlighted the longstanding issue of the missing bulk download feature in the POS system, a concern that FBR acknowledged and agreed to address.
The FTO ruling confirmed that frequent invoice syncing issues with the FBR servers and “fake disconnect” errors were due to substandard software, urging FBR to resolve these problems both technically and administratively.
