FBR chooses to tax retailers of five major cities

According to reports on Thursday, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has agreed to tax shops in five major cities across the nation: Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta.

According to the sources, the board has planned a scheme to raise Rs100 billion in revenue by imposing a tax on 3.5 million shopkeepers in selected cities.

Retailers would pay taxes in the federal capital as well as the four provincial capitals during the first phase, they stated.

They added that the taxes would be collected on a monthly basis and would be determined by the size of the shop and the amount of its yearly revenue.

The sources claimed that the plan was ready to go and that they would implement it as soon as the government gave their approval.

They added that under the plan, businesses in any industry would be subject to an advance tax of at least 10% on their yearly sales as merchants.

The caretaker government has finalized the ‘Tax Asaan Application’ for collecting tax from small shopkeepers based on the valuation of each shop determined by the FBR, according to a News report from last month. This comes after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rejected the introduction of any fixed scheme for retailers.

Officials verified that the retailers’ plan was nearly complete, and that the interim administration would now allow the program to be implemented ahead of schedule.

Every attempt to include millions of retailers in the tax net in the past has failed.