The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday maintained its firm stance on SRO.608(1)12014, with regards to retailers registration and strongly opposed any move against documentation of unregistered businessmen. Sources told fbr times that the FBR has conveyed its stance to the representatives of traders here at the FBR House, rejecting any amendment in the SRO.608. The FBR has also rejected the draft of the proposed amendments in the SRO which suggested abolition of standard rate of 17 percent sales tax on retailers operating in shopping malls by replacing it with turnover tax regime. Sources said that the procedure of the retailers was notified under SRO.608(1)2014 in consultation with the business and trade community during budget preparation exercise for 2014-15. The FBR had not issued two-tier sales tax regime for documentation of the retailers in isolation. The government had issued the procedure after due consultative process with the business community in May-June 2014. Now there is no justification of amending or suspending the SRO.608(1)2014. As far as FBRs opinion is concerned, the Board id strongly opposed to any move for amending or suspending the SRO.608(1)2014. The retailers voluntarily declare their income below the taxable limit or threshold to avoid registration and their non-co-operative attitude is creating serious problems in governments documentation drive. They are required to be registered with the sales tax and income tax department as per SRO.608 (1)2014. Sources were of the view that the federal government or provincial governments should introduce a business certificate for the new business like shops, retailers and business establishments to collect basic information including credentials of owner, National Tax Number (NTN), nature of business, place of business, size of business premises, actual location of business and in case of any change in the nature of business, a separate business certificate be submitted to the authority. If the proposed business certificate are issued by the provincial governments, the same can be communicated to the FBR through online facility. So far, the FBR had registered around 300 retailers during first quarter (July-September) 2014-15 under the new scheme announced in last budget against 11,000 identified retailers required to be registered with sales tax department. The FBRs statement shows that around 300 retailers have been registered so far. Whereas, there are more than 11,000 retailers who still need to be registered with sales tax which reflects very poor progress of the RTOs despite repeated directions and passage of three months, sources added. In the past, a Joint FBR-Business Community Committee was formed for better understanding and better implementation of SRO-608 regarding two tiers of compulsory sales tax registration for retailers.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 07:42:48 +0000
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