LAHORE: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Saturday conducted one day show at Packages Mall to educate public about its newly launched procedure of “Point of Sale” whereby invoicing system of big retail outlets have been linked directly with FBR computers to monitor collection and payment of sales tax on retail sales. The show was conducted by the team from FBR and was attended by senior officers .
FBR FATE Wing Chief Tehmina Aamer, Additional Commissioner CRTO Lahore Azhar Jahangir, Assistant Commissioner Asim Sana Niake and others were present on the occasion.
In order to ensure correct reporting of sales by retailers and realization of due tax from them, FBR prescribed the electronic integration of points of sales (POSs) of all Tier-1 retailers of textile and leather sector in budget 2018-19.
The integration was optional and to encourage the same an incentive of reduced rate of sales tax was provided.
For integration, the retailers have to install software extension provided by FBR on their system, which ensures live reporting of sales tax to FBR’s server. Live integration was operationalized with effect from 1st November 2018.
One salient feature of the system is that a customer or tax officer can easily verify through FBR’s website or a mobile app that invoice issued by the retailer has been duly reported to the Board and the tax charged thereon has been duly accounted for.
The provisions for mandatory integration of retailers were introduced in the Sales Tax Act, 1990, through the Finance Act, 2019, and proper rules were laid down. The deadline of 15th December, 2019, was provided for all retailers to integrate their POSs with FBR.
The FBR said that the process of integration is proceeding smoothly. FBR has conducted series of meeting, seminars and workshops across the country to educate and persuade retailers for integration.
Focal persons have been notified in each RTO / LTU to assist and facilitate retailers. Help desks have been established in air-conditioned malls to educate and facilitate retailers. All support material has also been provided on FBR’s website on its POS page.