FBR seals five shops on Karachi's Tariq Road

KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday sealed five shops in Karachi for not depositing the collected tax with the national exchequer, ARY News reported.

According to the details, FBR Corporate Tax Office Karachi took action against the point-of-sale (POS) registered vendors in Karachi’s Tariq Road market, found guilty of evasion of government tax.

The FBR officials sealed five shops in Tariq Road for not following the standard operating procedure which was released by the Federal Board of Revenue regarding depositing the tax.

The sealed shop owners are accused of charging customers with sales tax on every sale linked to the POS but not depositing it with the national exchequer.

It is pertinent to mention here that the FBR has failed to achieve its tax collection target of Rs965 billion for December 2022, falling short of Rs225 billion.

According to a statement, the revenue watchdog collected Rs740 billion in revenue in December against the target of Rs965 billion. Overall, the FBR has collected Rs3428 billion for the first six months of the current fiscal year.

In the current financial year 2022-23, the tax department collected Rs3428 billion for the first six months against Rs2929 billion collected in the corresponding period of last year, depicting an increase of 17 percent.

Moreover, FBR collected Rs740 billion for the month of December 2022 against Rs599 billion in the same month last year showing a growth of almost 24 percent as compared to the same month last year.

Direct taxes collection showed a growth of 66 percent during the month of December 2022 compared to December 2021. Direct taxes collection for the first six months also registered a growth of 49 percent.

Meanwhile, Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting on the revenue performance of the FBR.

Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad gave a detailed presentation on revenue targets and performance of FBR for the months of November and December 2022.

He apprised the Minister that FBR has surpassed the revenue collection targets till November and expressed hope to successfully meet its targets in the remaining months of the financial year 2022-23.