ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday extended the deadline to August 31 for Tier-1 retailers for integrating their point of sales (PoS) with its online tax system.

A circular issued by the FBR said that all Tier-1 retailers will furnish in writing their willingness to integrate their POS with the respective regional tax officers and Large Taxpayers Units by August 20 to avail the extended deadline.

The first deadline for PoS integration with FBR’s system was Dec 15, 2019 but in 2020, it was extended to March 30 and then to April 30 to facilitate retailers amid the lockdown. It was then further postponed to June 30.

Tier-1 retailers are classified as those located at luxurious shopping malls, retail chains, and stores having floor space of 1,000 square feet.

To contain the spread of coronavirus, the government has introduced smart lockdown across the country. Moreover, all major shopping malls and plazas are now allowed to remain open for a limited time.

For documentation, as held out to the International Monetary Fund under the Extended Fund Facility, the FBR has worked out a comprehensive plan to install PoS at outlets across the country in the current fiscal year to document sales of big retailers who are, as per some estimates, evading taxes worth billions of rupees.

Under the system, registration is the first step which is followed by the installation of PoS at respective outlets after which big retailers will report their sales in real time to the FBR to ensure tax collected from consumers at the cash counter is actually deposited with the government.

Currently, almost 44,000 shops are registered with the PoS systems and the FBR expects to get a maximum number by August 30. The total number of retailers which will be brought on is over 16,000.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2020