Retailers denounce harassment, POS glitches

The Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP), the official trade body representing the country's organised retail sector, has expressed grave concern over the deteriorating environment for tax-compliant retailers due to aggressive revenue enforcement measures and persistent failure of the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) Point of Sales (POS) integration system.

Comprising a large portion of Pakistan's retail and wholesale trade, the organised retail sector directly employs over one million people and supports a wide ecosystem, including shopping malls, manufacturers, service providers and the cottage industry. Retail brands are also growing contributors to export earnings through physical stores abroad and cross-border e-commerce.

Despite being the early adopters of POS system and generating 25-30% of their turnover in taxes, the compliant tier-1 retailers are now facing a perfect storm of high taxes, increasingly complex procedures, punitive enforcement and unresolved system issues, the association claimed.

This year alone, several regulatory instruments, including SRO 69(I)/2025, SRO 55(I)/2025 and the Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, have exacerbated the compliance burden without addressing POS system deficiencies. These include POS profile expiry disconnections, rendering invoices unverifiable; incorrect POS status flags showing "disconnected" despite active syncing; and weak support capacity of the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) to address technical challenges.