FBR seeks business records after POS integration

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has asked various businesses to integrate their recurring sales and procurement records with its database on a real-time basis after deploying point-of-sale system, it was learnt on Thursday.

The FBR made online integration of sales and purchases by various businesses, including hotels, restaurants and other service providers, mandatory.“Businesses will be required to integrate their businesses with the online system of the tax authority,” the FBR said in a statement.

This integration is separate from the point of sales that has been made mandatory under sales tax laws.Under the Sales Tax Act, 1990, all retailers falling under category of tier-1 are required to integrate their outlets with the FBR’s online system for monitoring of sales and purchases.

The tier-1 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 Rs1.2 million 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 FBR extended the integration deadline several times in the past. An official said the business integration in sales tax was successful after taking time. The FBR has given August 31 as the integration deadline to retailers having certain turnovers and falling under categories as specified by the revenue authority.

The FBR made mandatory the integration for 12 categories of businesses: restaurants, hotels, marriage halls, hospitals, health clubs, retailers, and manufacturers.Businesses in eight major cities, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Peshawar and Gujranwala will be required to integrate their businesses.

The FBR asked the businesses to install fiscal electronic devices and software as approved by the tax authorities. “The businesses shall provide details: name of business, branch name, branch address.”

FBR officials said the online integration of certain businesses had been introduced to stop income tax evasion.A senior official at the Large Taxpayers Unit Karachi said many service providers were concealing their incomes to evade taxes. The official said efforts were made to bring such segments of individuals mentioned above into the tax net but the tax authorities have not been much successful.