FBR Ordered To Increase Integration of Point of Sale System

Minister for Finance & Revenue, Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, visited the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) headquarters today and held a meeting with the officers. The meeting’s main purpose was to devise a strategy to increase the integration of retailers with the Point of Sales (POS) system of FBR. The meeting also discussed ways to bring identified potential taxpayers into the tax net. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Finance & Revenue Dr. Waqar Masood Khan and Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad along with other members of FBR were present in the meeting. ALSO READ IMF is Not Cancelling its Loan to Pakistan: Shaukat Tarin Chairman FBR, said that licensing IT companies for installation and configuration of POS system would be completed by the end of August. He added that monitoring cells would be formed in each regional tax office (RTO), headed by the respective Chief Commissioner, to supervise the POS integration for achieving desired results. Minister for Finance and Revenue directed to ensure effective tracking progress of installed POS machines and provide post-deployment support to the retailers. He further directed the officials to determine the total volume of sales by retailers for effective revenue generation through the POS system after adjustment of input and output taxes. He ordered establishing a cell at FBR HQ to speed up POS integration. The meeting also discussed the strategy to increase the tax net. FBR team briefed that a sizeable number of potential taxpayers have been identified after retrieving available data of their withholding taxes through third-party sharing. Chairman FBR said that efforts are being made to bring all the identified potential taxpayers into the tax net. ALSO READ NPMC to Devise a New Strategy to Normalize Prices of Everyday Items Minister for Finance and Revenue directed to remove all hurdles in bringing the identified potential taxpayers into the tax net. He asked to further identify the potential taxpayers based on the third-party data being received through credible sources. The Minister stressed the need to finalize the modalities of third-party audit, which would not only increase the tax net but would also generate much-needed revenue. The meeting ended after it was decided to hold regular meetings to pursue the targets on a fast track basis.