ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of Pakistan would launch a pilot testing of Real-time Invoice Monitoring System (RIMS) on hotels and restaurants in the country’s capital Islamabad having sales turnover of Rs5 million and above in the first week of January 2018 to monitor sales and collect sales tax.

On successful operation of pilot testing, the coverage of RIMS would be extended to all hotels/restaurants in the federal capital.

However, hotels/restaurants with a sales turnover of less than Rs5 million would not be covered by RIMS. This was disclosed by Mustafa Sajjad Hassan, Chief Commissioner, Regional Tax Office, Islamabad while addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Ayesha Farooq Commissioner RTO, Zaheer Qureshi Chief Sales Tax and Engr. Iftikhar Ali SPM (Punjab and KP) from PRAL also accompanied him. At the occasion, a detailed presentation on web-based RIMS was given to the business community.

Mustafa Sajjad Hassan said that the purpose of web-based RIMS was to reduce the interface between FBR and taxpayers and said that gradually other sectors of the economy would also be covered by such IT based systems to monitor sales and collect sales tax.

He said business community should not be afraid of RIMS as it would facilitate them and reduce their interaction with FBR officials. He was hopeful that the improvement in sales tax collection would lead to further reduction in its rates.

Internews