300 big retailers yet to link with FBR ‘Point of Sale’

KARACHI: Authorities have identified at least 300 big retailers who are yet to comply with a legal requirement to digitally integrate their trade transactions with real-time point of sale system as the integration deadline ends Sunday (tomorrow), sources said on Friday.

The sources at Regional Tax Office (RTO-II) Karachi said the retailers were

identified during online physical survey of big shopping plazas and markets across the city.

The sources said the FBR would issue notices to the retailers. If they remain non-compliant then the tax authorities would invoke provision of tax laws to ensure their integration, they added.

Automated ‘point of sale’ software would link the computers at mega retail stores and shopping malls with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) system to avoid tax evasion worth billions of rupees.

The FBR has categorised the big retailers as Teir-1. The retailers are required to integrate their sales and purchase data with the FBR system by December 15, 2019.

The sources said the RTO-II Karachi conducted physical survey of such retailers and collected information of such retailers making purchases from manufacturers and importers.

The retailers include those operating as units of a national or international chain of stores, in an air-conditioned shopping mall, plaza or centre, excluding kiosks, whose cumulative electricity bill during the immediately preceding 12 consecutive months exceed Rs600,000 or those engaged in bulk import and supply of consumer goods on wholesale basis to retailers and consumers.

Besides, a retailer is also categorised as tier-1 if his shop measures 1,000 feet in area or more.

The sources said only 49 big retailers have so far deployed automated point of sales. The FBR is offering incentives to the retailers in shape of input adjustment against their total liabilities.

They said the purpose of integrating the sales and purchases is to document manufacturing and imported goods in addition to discourage practice of suppressing sales.

Reports said huge size of imported goods at the retail market is not documented. The FBR would be able to detect commercial importers making huge supplies to big retailers – through the system – but not showing their actual imported goods.

The sources further said the integration would also discourage the trend of non-duty paid or smuggled goods through retailers. The FBR launched awareness and technical workshops across the country in order to convince big retailers to integrate their outlets with the FBR.