ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday notified rules for sealing and de-sealing business premises of Tier-1 retailers.
In this regard the FBR issued SRO 252/2022 to make amendments in Sales Tax Rules, 2006. Through the amendments, a new chapter has been introduced namely, ‘Procedure for Sealing and De-sealing of Business Premises of Tier-1 Retailers.’
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The FBR said that the new chapter shall apply to the following persons, namely:
1. Any person who is integrated for monitoring, tracking, reporting or recording of sales, production and similar business transactions with the board or its computerized system, conducts such transactions in a manner so as to avoid monitoring, tracking, reporting or recording such transactions, or issue an invoice which does not carry the prescribed invoice number or barcode or QR code or bears duplicate invoice number or counterfeit barcode or QR code; and
2. Any person who is required to integrate his business as stipulated under sub-section (9A) of Section 3 read with sub-section 43A of Section 2 but fails to get himself registered under the Act, and if registered, fails to integrate in the manner as required under the law and rules made thereunder.
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According to procedure for sealing of business premises of integrated Tier-1 retailers, the business premises of such person shall be liable to be sealed in the manner prescribed under:
1. The commissioner Inland Revenue, in whose territorial jurisdiction the business premises of Tier-1 retailer is located, may initiate proceedings for sealing of the business premises on the basis of information that such person was found involved in the issuance of tax invoice that does not carry the invoice number or QR Code as prescribed, bears duplicate invoice number or counterfeit QR Code, the invoice is defaced, or there is any other evidence of tempering;
2. The information referred may be required in the following manner:
(i) Reported as unverified on ‘Tax Asaan’ application or POS Dashboard;
(ii) Physically available or acquired through mystery shopping as referred in sub-section 2 of section 56 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990; or
(iii) Through any other reliable source.
3. The Commissioner Inland Revenue concerned shall verify any invoice through invoice number or QR code before declaring it unverified;
4. Where the commissioner Inland Revenue has evidence as provided, that a Tier-1 retailer has either issued three unverified invoices in a day or five unverified invoices in seven days against a single STRN, the Commissioner Inland Revenue shall seek the approval of the Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue in writing for sealing of the retailer’s business premises besides mentioning the team of officers and officials that shall carry out the process of sealing of the said business premises:
Provided in case the unverified invoices belong to a business premises of Tier-1 retailer having jurisdiction in some other filed formation, the commissioner Inland Revenue concerned shall seek approval from the Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue in whose jurisdiction the integrated Tier-1 retailer falls besides mentioning the team of officers and officials that shall carry out the process of sealing of the said business premises;
(5) The Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue, in whose jurisdiction the integrated Tier-1 retailer falls, shall on receipt of request for approval, issue an order in writing for allowing or disallowing the sealing of such business premises after recording the reasons therein, and, in case of allowing sealing of business premises, shall also notify the team for carrying out the process of sealing immediately:
Provided where the jurisdiction of Tier-1 retailer falls in some other field formation, the concerned Chief Commissioner shall request the FBR for notification of the team;
(6) The Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue in whose jurisdiction the integrated Tier-1 retailer falls shall decide whether one or more branches are to be sealed depending on the unverified invoices issued by the respective branches; and
(7) The sealing order shall be communicated by the concerned Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue to the Member (IR-Operations) for information and a copy thereof shall be sent to Chief (POS) for record.
Through the instant SRO 252/2022 the FBR also issued procedures for sealing of business premises of non-integrated Tier-1 retailers and de-sealing of business premises of integrated Tier-1 retailers.
