Islamabad: During a high-level meeting conducted a few days ago, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and revenue board representatives from the provinces agreed to introduce an online portal for filing sales tax returns on goods and services by August, according to news reports. This is another project launched under the government’s ease of doing business initiative.
The provincial revenue bodies collect tax on services, while the FBR collects sales tax on products. The sales tax is then distributed based on the National Finance Commission formula to provide the provinces their share. Consequently, tax payers have to file five different returns making the process lengthy.
This step is a major reform as tax payers will now be able to submit their returns with ease through one portal at their convenience for both provincial revenue bodies and the FBR. Moreover, it will also allow users to access all FBR and provincial sales tax returns through that portal.
