Daily Times

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has formed teams to check documents of the imported goods at major shopping areas, particularly large retailers, in major cities across the country. The crackdown will be initiated from Sept 1.

Chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi said that the teams will check import documents of foreign goods to ensure compliance with various requirements of the law, adding the board had started a phased programme to combat sale of smuggled goods in the local market.

Under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1969, the FBR has powers to seek import documents for imported goods available for sale to consumers from the person dealing in such goods.

Earlier this month, the FBR had served notices to as many as 228 garment shops and boutiques on paying no tax despite “having booming business activity.” “This office had identified 228 garments shops/boutiques doing business activity only in the area of North Nazimabad, Karachi and they are not on tax roll,” Inland Revenue Officer Salman Qamar had said in a report.

“During the field survey and information collected from various survey already conducted, it was transpired that garments and boutiques shops having booming business activity but a large number of them are not registered or filing their tax returns,” reads the report. They have been issued a notice u/s 176 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 to bring them on the tax roll.