Day: October 2, 2021

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, inaugurated the much-awaited Track & Trace System (TTS) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) at the Pakistan Tobacco Company’s (PTC) factory in Jhelum on Friday.

The special ceremony was attended by Chairman FBR, Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed, along with Qaiser Iqbal, Member (Inland Revenue, Operations) and Tariq Sheikh, Project Director (TTS), in the presence of CEO PTC, Ali Khan.

Speaking on the occasion, the Federal Minister for Finance & Revenue congratulated FBR for rolling out this significant project which would help prevent leakage of revenue, under-reporting of production and sales of tobacco products, and ensure proper payment of Federal Excise Duty and Sales Tax on manufacturing and sale of the products.

“TTS is a very comprehensive and robust electronic monitoring system, which is a paradigm shift from the conventional physical monitoring system. It is believed that installation of TTS in the notified sectors would be a game-changer for improving revenue and curbing counterfeit products in the market,” the minister underlined.

Appreciating FBR for embarking upon the system, Tarin said it was heartening that FBR successfully issued a license to and, subsequently, signed a contract with AJCL/Mittas/Authentix Consortium for installation of TTS on March 5, 2021.

TTS is to be developed, operated, and maintained by the licensee for notified sectors including tobacco products manufactured in and imported into Pakistan. For this purpose, FBR has been striving hard to implement the system for the last 12 years. Unfortunately, FBR faced five unsuccessful attempts. However, in its sixth attempt, FBR has procured one of the best systems available after strenuous efforts of over a decade.

The Finance Minister stated, “Our prime objective is to take the tax-to-GDP ratio, which currently stands at 8-12%, to 20% in the coming years. He surmised that tax evasion of Rs. 70 billion was being done in the tobacco sector, making 37% of the market share”. He said the Economic Advisory Council was directed to identify more sectors where TTS could be installed to increase revenue.

Speaking on the occasion, Chairman FBR, Dr. Ahmed, highlighted features of the TTS project. He stated that the electronic monitoring of common-use products, right from the entry-point into the supply chain, i,e, the production or import till the exit-point and the purchase by end-consumer – broadly referred to as TTS – was being viewed as a watershed development in maximizing revenue potential in the notified sectors.

“TTS entails the application of Unique Identification Marks (UIMs) or Tax Stamps carrying covert, semi-covert, overt, forensic and digital features enabling electronic traceability of goods across the supply chain,” the Chairman FBR underscored. He maintained that the UIMs applied on industrial products would help identify, isolate, and curb the production, supply, and movement of untaxed, counterfeit, and smuggled goods thereby strengthening governance and rule of law in Pakistan. “At present, TTS is used in over 80 countries to apply about 10 trillion UIMs on various products, across the globe,” he said.

He reaffirmed that this system would be further strengthened by vigilant, efficient, and fully-equipped Inland Revenue Enforcement Network (IREN) and the federal government had already allocated Rs. 435 million for purchase of vehicles, state-of-the-art equipment, and the latest technology-driven gadgets for the Enforcement Network.

“The IREN will be able to combat evasion and leakages of taxes and duties payable on notified goods, through the Enforcement Squads that shall patrol the designated routes on which specified goods are moving and check a vehicle or any place of storage, wherein reportedly such specified goods are being transported, stored or kept,” he explained. In addition to tobacco, he announced, FBR is preparing to implement TTS in the sugar, fertilizer, and cement sectors in the near future.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has imposed service charges at a rate of Rs. 1 per invoice issued through all points of sale (POS) to be collected by Tier-1 retailers from customers across the country.

In this connection, the FBR has issued SRO.1279(I)/2021 here on Friday.

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 76 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, the Federal Board of Revenue, with the approval of the Federal Minister-in-charge, has levied service charges at a rate of one Rupee per invoice issued through all POS integrated with the authority’s computerized system for real-time reporting of sales.

These charges will be collected by Tier-1 retailers and deposited in a designated account along with monthly payment of sales tax and filing of the sales tax return, FBR added.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended on September 30, 2021, recorded a decrease of 0.10 percent due to a decline in the prices of some food items, according to the weekly data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The food items that contributed to the decrease include tomatoes that marked 12.57 percent decline, onions 6.75 percent, bananas 3.67 percent, wheat flour bag 2.33 percent, sugar 1.73 percent, jaggery 0.92 percent, pulse Moong 0.71 percent, powdered chilies 0.57 percent, and pulse Mash 0.27 percent.

The year-on-year (YoY) trend depicts an increase of 12.97 percent with prices of most of the items increased, mainly electricity for Q1 (57.92 percent), LPG (55.16 percent), vegetable ghee per kilogram (40.40 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (38.82 percent), cooking oil 5-liter (38.06 percent), mustard oil (37.87 percent), chicken (36.97 percent), chilies powder (34.95 percent), gents sandals (33.37 percent), eggs (25.62 percent) and gents sponge chappal (25.13 percent), while a major decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes (50.52 percent), pulse Moong (29.75 percent), potatoes (26.69 percent) and onions (21.66 percent).

According to the latest data, the SPI went down from 157.19 percent during the week that ended on September 23, 2021, to 157.04 percent during the week under review. The SPI for the consumption groups up to Rs. 17,733, Rs. 17,733 to Rs. 22,888, Rs. 22,889 to Rs. 29,517, Rs. 29,518 to Rs. 44,175 and for above Rs. 44,175 decreased by 0.23 percent, 0.22 percent, 0.18 percent, 0.15 percent, and 0.03 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 20 (39.21 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased and 21 (41.18 percent) items remained constant, said PBS in weekly SPI data.

The commodities, which recorded increase in their average prices include LPG (2.27 percent), potatoes (1.73 percent), garlic (1.61 percent), chicken (0.87 percent), mustard oil (0.73 percent), tea prepared (0.56 percent), vegetable ghee Dalda/Habib 2.5 kg tin each (0.49 percent), eggs (0.39 percent), georgette (0.34 percent), toilet soap (0.11 percent), pulse Masoor (0.09 percent), cooked beef (0.07 percent), beef with bone (0.06 percent), fresh milk (0.04 percent), mutton (0.03 percent), rice Basmati broken (0.03 percent), long cloth 57″ Gul Ahmed/al-Karam (0.02 percent), curd (0.02 percent), cooking oil Dalda or other similar brand (sn), 5-liter tin each (0.01 percent) and rice irri-6/9 (0.01 percent).

The commodities which recorded a decrease in their prices during the period under review include tomatoes (12.57 percent) onions (6.75 percent0, bananas (3.67 percent), wheat flour bag 20 kg (2.33 percent), sugar (1.73 percent), jaggery (0.92 percent), pulse Moong (0.71 percent), National chilies powder 200-g packet each (0.57 percent), pulse Mash (0.27 percent) and gram (0.26 percent).

Source: Pro Pakistani