ISLAMABAD - Traders from different cities on Wednesday staged protest in front of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) office against different taxation policies of the incumbent government.
All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran (APAT) held a protest against Point of Sales (PoS) integration and Presidential ordinance for broadening of tax base of the country. “We will continue our protest till an ordinance is passed to end corruption in FBR,” the traders including APAT leader Ajmal Baloch said. He further said that the protest will continue till the withdrawal of the law regarding installation of PoS and limit the sales tax law to importers and manufacturers only. The traders said it was crucial to nullify the “black laws” imposed through a presidential ordinance, which, according to the government, has been imposed to broaden the tax base.
Traders demanded that all the powers granted to the FBR through the ordinance should be withdrawn. They further said they would not, at any cost, allow the installation of POS devices and that they have rejected the registration of traders for sales tax. The government seeks to impose withholding tax through electricity bills on professionals undertaking their assignments from home. It also seeks for traders to be integrated with the FBR through the installation of PoS devices. The FBR has recently categorically stated that POS did not pertain to small traders. While clarifying Section 114B of the Income Tax Ordiance-2001, Member IR Operations informed that the general public is being misled by vested groups leading to believe that their electricity & gas connections will be disconnected and their mobile phones disabled. He clarified that only those persons who are not appearing on ATL will face this treatment.
While giving Clarification of Sub Section (1A) of Section 235 of the Income Tax, 2001, Member IR Operations stated that the change in rate of advance tax on electricity bill as introduced in the Tax Laws (Third Amendment) Ordinance-2021 will not affect small traders nor any other person who is income tax filer. He further explained that this provision had been introduced for bringing non taxpaying “professionals” in the tax net. He also added that this provision will not affect commercial consumers of electricity.