FBR decides to revamp IMS for restaurants

Recommends punishments for not installing system meant to stop evasion of sales tax

ISLAMABAD: The web-based Invoice Management System (IMS), introduced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for restaurants to stop evasion of sales tax, has several faults and drawbacks.

It has been decided in principle to change its name to Real Time Invoice Management system. The FBR has recommended punishments for those not installing the system. These punishments include imposing fines and sealing of restaurants.

According to some documents, these suggestions were made in a meeting that reviewed monitoring and implementation of tax collections under the new system.  The objective of the meeting was to update the system in line with the future needs and to extend it to other sectors as well.

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The meeting, chaired by Inland Revenue East and West Zone Chief Commissioner Abdul Waheed Khan, was attended by ADC IR West Zone Maria Sharif, ADC IR East Zone Tariq Iqbal Khan, Commissioner In land Revenue East Zone Dr M Husnain, senior auditor Altaf Khan and M Bashir from Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited.

The Restaurant Inventory Management System (RIMS), introduced on April 28, was aimed at transparent tax collection from restaurants through use of modern technology while maintaining minimum tangible contacts.

After detailed analysis of the system, eight major flaws were identified and lack of a reporting mechanism was declared the biggest flaw.

Under the system, invoices from restaurants had no marking or identification from the FBR or RIMS; invoice number in RIMS and invoices issued to the customers could not be detected; The FBR officials were not well-equipped to check the functionality of the system through any application, device or tool; installed system had no identification system for a computer; no alert mechanism was available in case of a breakdown and some points of sales were not in line with RIMS.

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But above all, there were no penalties in case of non-compliance, ie, not installing the system.

Several recommendations have been made to  overcome the flaws, which include identifying the customer through sent invoice;  reporting alert to be included in the module and system and software to be linked with the concerned regional tax office; chief commissioner or commissioner in land revenue to have its access on their computers so that whole process could be monitored.

It is also recommended that in case of any restaurant being disconnected with the software, reporting alert be immediately sent to the officer concerned so that he could contact the restaurant; field officer concerned to have tools or mobile apps to check and monitor restaurants at any place and RIMS software installed in computers of business chains and individual businesses to be linked to main server.