Business Desk 
Nov 06, 2024
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is hinting at making amendments to the Tajir Dost Scheme (TDS) ahead of its clampdown set to land on the biggest retailers based on credible information.
Instead of taxing retailers or traders operating at small scales, the FBR will reportedly register big retailers and shopkeepers on the basis of analysis of returns, data security and commercial electricity consumption data.
To bring about these changes, the law enforcement agency will repeal the currently enacted policy to tax per shop or outlet.
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Whether such major changes were triggered by IMF endorsement or not is yet to be confirmed since the Tajir Dost Scheme fell short of collecting the desired revenue.
The revenue target foreseen in the first quarter was Rs10 billion, followed by the collection of Rs23.4 billion for the second quarter (Oct-Dec).
According to The News, the FBR agreed with the IMF to generate Rs50 billion in revenue through the retail taxation programme during the current fiscal year, but the authority barely managed to accumulate just Rs1.7 million in tax revenues from TDS across the country.
The FBR, after implementing the aforementioned changes, is expected to register retailers based on credible information of concealment/evasion rather than relying on physical surveys of the shops.
The decision was made during a meeting held between the FBR official and Muhammad Naeem Mir, chief coordinator of Tajir Dost Scheme-2024, on Tuesday.
