FBR to launch single ST portal by month-end

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will launch a new “Single Sales Tax Portal” for filing of single sales tax returns by all federal and provincial sales taxpayers by the end of October 2021.

Following launching of the “Single Sales Tax Portal,” taxpayers registered with the FBR, Sindh Revenue Board, Punjab Revenue Authority, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority, Balochistan Revenue Authority, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan would be able to file single sales tax return instead of separate returns.

According to an announcement of the FBR here on Thursday, building further on its ongoing drive for digitisation and automation of various processes involved in revenue collection, the FBR has developed “Single Sales Tax Portal” to facilitate the taxpayers and ensure the ease of doing business.

This watershed development of the Single Tax Portal developed by the FBR is the outcome of various rounds of negotiations between the FBR and the provincial revenue authorities.

The FBR has already offered this portal to the provincial revenue authorities in order to facilitate the taxpayers through one-link facility.

The portal is in the final stages of testing and is likely to be launched by the last week of October 2021.

Till now, sales tax registered persons had to file their monthly sales tax returns separately to every tax jurisdiction where they conducted business, such as the FBR, the Sindh Revenue Board, Punjab Revenue Authority, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority, and Balochistan Revenue Authority.

Some of the taxpayers had to file returns with revenue authorities of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

This was a cumbersome task, which often led to complications and disputes over jurisdiction.

Single Sales Tax Portal will also help in simplification of the tax procedures.

It will enable the taxpayers to save time and effort, and reduce their compliance costs.

By minimising data entry, it also addresses the issues of data and calculation errors.

The system will automatically apportion input tax adjustment as well as tax payments across the sales tax authorities.

Through this system, officers of all revenue authorities will be able to make better informed decisions about matters related to sales tax. The single portal system is a significant milestone towards taxpayers’ facilitation and a big leap forward towards harmonisation of taxes between the federal government and the provinces.—SOHAIL SARFRAZ