LAHORE: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), Dr Asif Mahmood Jah, has directed the Director General (IT&DT) FBR to immediately develop a forewarning system to alert the tier-1 retailers about the auto disconnection/shut down/pause or break in the functioning of Point of Sale (POS) system and to ensure that POS security tokens do not expire before five years after due intimation to the registered POS-related taxpayer.
The tier-1 retailers had lodged a complaint before the FTO that there has been no automatic version change in the POS system and both the offline component and offline API versions have remained unchanged for the past three years. They had submitted that the FBR should communicate in advance in case of any updates or changes to the POS system.
The FTO, in his order, maintained that all issues being faced by the tier-1 retailers while implementing POS system are based on facts and are adversely impacting their working and calls for immediate resolution on urgent basis for better and complaint tax collection and for removal of glitches and undue bottlenecks.
It may be noted that the department had also conceded that there are technical issues in the implementation of POS system for tier-1 retailers. It added that the concerned staff was continuously engaged in improving the system.
The FTO maintained that the officers in the field formations concerning POS do not appear to be well trained and lack technical know how about the system that causes difficulties for the taxpayers since these officers are not able to address or redress the taxpayer grievances and bona fide issues well in time.
More importantly, the FTO added, these officers do not have direct access to PRAL. Accordingly, the FTO has directed the FBR to rectify and eliminate abrupt opening and shutdown of IRMS download in the system; and also to expedite the development of facility of bulk and develop systematic coordination, between PRAL and field formations of FBR for field officers appropriate training on POS and for immediate resolution of issues faced by the tier-1 retailers.
Furthermore, it has directed the designated focal persons in each field formation must be technically well-equipped and have effective coordination with PRAL and the Chief Commissioners of field formations should not to seal business premises of tier-1 retailers to the extent of and till the time the burning issues/anomalies currently existing in the POS system are addressed by FBR.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
