Retailers denounce harassment, POS glitches
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The Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP), the official trade body representing the country's organised retail sector, has expressed grave concern over the deteriorating environment for tax-compliant retailers due to aggressive revenue enforcement measures and persistent failure of the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) Point of Sales (POS) integration system.
Comprising a large portion of Pakistan's retail and wholesale trade, the organised retail sector directly employs over one million people and supports a wide ecosystem, including shopping malls, manufacturers, service providers and the cottage industry. Retail brands are also growing contributors to export earnings through physical stores abroad and cross-border e-commerce.
Despite being the early adopters of POS system and generating 25-30% of their turnover in taxes, the compliant tier-1 retailers are now facing a perfect storm of high taxes, increasingly complex procedures, punitive enforcement and unresolved system issues, the association claimed.
This year alone, several regulatory instruments, including SRO 69(I)/2025, SRO 55(I)/2025 and the Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, have exacerbated the compliance burden without addressing POS system deficiencies. These include POS profile expiry disconnections, rendering invoices unverifiable; incorrect POS status flags showing "disconnected" despite active syncing; and weak support capacity of the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) to address technical challenges.
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Express Tribune
11 hours ago
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Business Recorder
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They urged the reinstatement of local procurement under the scheme to support the entire textile value chain, enabling a level playing field and a win-win for all stakeholders. Export Facilitation Scheme be retained in FY26 budget They explained that the scheme was launched in 2021 after wide consultation with stakeholders to simplify and streamline export procedures. EFS merged all previous schemes into one, reduced documentation requirements, and introduced a single-window digital system through WeBOC and Pakistan Single Window (PSW). The fully automated system includes real-time audits and helps regulate compliance costs. According to the forum, since its inception, the EFS has played a crucial role in easing liquidity pressures and supporting exporters' competitiveness. 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They emphasized that EFS should remain unchanged and that the FBR should focus on expanding the tax base instead of burdening existing exporters. Exporters' Sales Tax refunds have already been delayed for months, and adding more taxes will only increase their hardships. The associations repeated their firm demand to continue EFS in its original form as of 2021—before the 2024-2025 Federal Budget—with local procurement allowed under section 880(1)(b) of SRO 957(I)/2021, which permits local input goods subject to Sales Tax to be supplied against zero-rated invoices. This, they said, is necessary to ensure liquidity, competitiveness, and formalization of the export value chain. The continuation of EFS in its original form has also been recommended by the Inter-Ministerial Committee chaired by the Federal Planning Minister, under the Prime Minister's direction. 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