About 500,000 countrywide retailers with a tax potential of about Rs 1,500 billion are the new target of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to ensure growth in revenue collections.

According to Business Recorder, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also stressed the government to bring them into the tax net for a growth in revenue collection.

At present, Pakistan is collecting Rs 5,500 billion taxes annually while it has a potential of generating Rs 12,000 billion, and once achieved, the country would be able to fill the gap of Rs 2,500 billion in revenue generation and expenditure.

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) there are 400,000 to 500,000 retailers in Pakistan with a tax potential of 1000-1500 billion that would be beneficial to the economy once tapped by the Board.

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has introduced the Point of Sale (POS) integration system to monitor sales tax and it is specific to the Tier-1 retailers who generate bulk of invoices. They are blamed with the charge of concealing the invoices. The target of the ta authority is to minimize this practice.

Trust deficit on the part of taxpayers has led to the controversy, which the Board is trying to overcome through an awareness drive. Even the tax practitioners are confused on the concept.

The POS integration system would ensure both the invoices and inventories of Tier-1 retailers. It would be able to control theft at their outlets. Besides, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued SRO 779(I)/2020 to bring sales 12 services on record through Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) in major cities of the country.