FBR plans to develop common reporting platform for collection

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has planned to develop a common returns filing and tax payment system under the head of sales tax on services, officials said on Thursday.

The provincial authorities are not prepared to adopt or synchronise with the system, which is causing delay in its implementation, the officials added. The provinces of Sindh and Punjab are well-prepared, but KP revenue board is developing its system and Balochistan revenue authority is at the initial stages. “It is difficult to develop a common platform until all the provincial authorities are ready,” an official of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said.

At present, taxpayers have to deal with five revenue authorities, including one federal and four provincial, for payment of duty and taxes and filing their monthly sales tax returns. The official said once the provinces are ready for data synchronisation, a single return form will be developed and the taxpayers will only select the authority for payment and filing of returns.

After the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in April 2010, the provinces were delegated with the powers to collect sales tax from the federation. Sindh Revenue Board was the first to start functioning; followed by Punjab, KP and Balochistan, the official added.

After the establishment of four more revenue authorities along with the FBR, the taxpayers working in multiple jurisdictions became exhausted due to dealing with such authorities in filing monthly returns, payment and audit matters. The official said the provincial authorities are worried over the introduction of new system, as all the payments will now once again go to FBR.

For this purpose, there should be a separate independent national tax authority and the FBR would work with such authority, the FBR official said.

Officials in Sindh Revenue Board said the federal authorities are showing less interest in harmonising the sales tax on services and facilitate the taxpayers. A SRB official said about three years ago the provincial revenue board had asked the Pakistan Revenue Automation (Pvt) Limited (PRAL) to develop a common reporting system to facilitate taxpayers operating their business simultaneously under the jurisdiction of the FBR and SRB. “However, there was no response to-date,” the official added.

 Published in The News, March 24^th, 2017