Point of Sale invoice system: FBR chairman gives Dec 25 deadline for implementation

ISLAMABAD: FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi on Wednesday gave deadline of December 25 to all Chief Commissioners for implementation of Point of Sale (POS) linked invoice system at all tier-1 retail outlets of the country.

The FBR defined that Tier-1 covers retailer operating as a unit of a national or international chain of stores; a retailer operating in an air-conditioned shopping mall, plaza or centre, excluding kiosks; a retailer whose cumulative electricity bill during the immediately preceding 12 consecutive months exceeds Rs600,000; a wholesaler-cum-retailer engaged in bulk import and supply of consumer goods on wholesale basis to the retailers as well as on retail basis to the general body of the consumers and a retailer whose shop measures 1,000 square feet in area or more.

According to the directives sent out by FBR chairman to all Chief Commissioners of Inland Revenue (IR) stating that implementation on Point of Sale invoicing system for first tier retailers is a very important administrative step for improvement of taxation system in Pakistan. It is desired that all field formations are to undertake proactive approach for the same, added the FBR chairman. He said that it is, therefore, directed that in addition to relevant notices for implementation of POS, dedicated teams be constituted and authorised by the commissioners concerned to contact each such retailer ensuring the entity’s connectivity with the system by December 25, 2019. The Member IT is to be contacted for any IT related issues being faced in such cases, he added. However, the official sources said that the FBR had issued rules for bringing mega retailer outlets and shopping malls into Point of Sale system.

The computerised machines will be installed at mega retail stores and shopping malls that will be linked with the FBR system in order to avoid tax evasion worth billions of rupees.

The FBR also plans to come up with gift scheme for those customers through balloting who will get computerised receipts of purchases. The FBR is targeting a few thousand mega retailers at luxurious shopping malls.

In the past all efforts made by the FBR failed to fetch the desired results for bringing retailers into tax net but this time technology would be utilised to expand the narrowed tax base.

The FBR cannot handle millions of retailers through manual systems so the new POS through computerised system to help the tax machinery to give confidence to retailers that there will be no element for harassment if they come into tax system.

The top officials said that giant retailers of textile sector would link their Point of Sale terminals with the online system of FBR. The Electronic Point of Sale integration with FBR has already been completed successfully.

Presently, the FBR rules apply to supplies of finished fabric and locally manufactured finished articles of textile and textile made-ups and leather and artificial leather, as are made by the registered persons who are integrated with Board’s online system for the purpose of availing lower rate on supplies.

The integrated suppliers shall notify to the Board, through the computerised system, of all their outlets, hereinafter referred to as notified outlets, from which they intend to sell the supplies subject to lower rate as specified in the said condition and the integrated supplier shall register each Point of Sale (POS) to activate the integration.

No sale or supply from the notified outlets shall be made without being recorded by the duly accredited electronic fiscal device (EFD), which means a system composed of one Sale Data Controller (SDC) and at least one Point of Sale (POS) connected together, that has the specified characteristics and requirements. The POS shall print a clear and legible sales tax invoice for each transaction, copy of which shall be provided to the customer, containing the particulars.