Nearly 10,000 shopkeepers have registered under the Asan Tax Scheme (ATS) within the first month of its launch, State Minister for Finance and Railways Bilal Azhar Kayani said on Friday.
Chairing a meeting to review the scheme’s progress, Kayani was presented with data showing that 9,806 shopkeepers had joined ATS since its rollout, with registrants now at various stages of filing their tax returns. The meeting was attended by traders’ representatives Ajmal Baloch and Kashif Chaudhry.
Officials informed the meeting that 1,929 of the newly registered shopkeepers were entering the tax system for the first time, while 428 had already completed the filing of their returns. Shopkeepers from both small towns and major cities were among those who had filed.
Kayani directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to promptly resolve technical objections raised by shopkeepers and lawyers over the scheme’s implementation. He also instructed authorities to issue FBR plates to shopkeepers who had already filed their returns without delay.
Describing ATS as a facility exclusive to shopkeepers, Kayani said the scheme was not available to any other business segment. He expressed hope that the initiative would draw more shopkeepers into the tax net, adding that there was no longer any justification for them to remain non-filers following its launch.
The latest figures mark a sharp improvement from just days earlier, when the scheme had drawn a lukewarm response from retailers. At that stage, around 5,000 retailers had registered, but only 332 had filed returns, with total tax payments amounting to Rs26.5 million.
The slow uptake stood in contrast to the wider tax-filing trend, with the FBR receiving 3.5 million income tax returns so far this year, up from 2.5 million during the same period last year, along with roughly Rs10 billion in accompanying tax payments.
To encourage compliance, the FBR had earlier agreed with traders’ representatives to impose penalties on shopkeepers who failed to avail themselves of the scheme within the stipulated timeframe. Under the agreed terms, non-compliant shopkeepers face a fine of Rs10,000 for the first month, rising to Rs25,000 for the second month and Rs50,000 for the third month.
