FPCCI to brief PM and FM tomorrow on Budget Anomalies

A delegation of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI)led by the President Ghazanfar Bilour and Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir, Senior Vice President, FPCCI will hold a meeting on Tuesday, May 8, 2018  with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Dr. Miftah Ismail, Federal Finance Minister and discuss the issues and anomalies of the recently announced Federal Budget 2018-19 for their removal expeditiously before the Finance Bill, 2018 is passed by the National Assembly.

Identifying the issues Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir, SVP and Chairman of Budget Advisory Council, FPCCI will be urging the government to resolve the long outstanding issue of GIDCby rationalizing the previous accumulated GIDC dues, within its tenure. He is also urging that the Further Tax on sales to unregistered persons be scaled down from 3% to 1%, originally introduced vide Finance Act, 2013 as it is a root cause of flying invoices.

Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir will also be proposing that the final Tax Regime (FTR) status of Commercial importers be restored and the tax paid at import stage @ 6% U/S 143B of ITO 2001 be considered as full and final discharge of their tax liability.

Regarding refunds Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir will impress upon the government to finalize the mechanism of payment of all pending refund claims of all Federal and local taxes and duties, within three months, in consultation with FPCCI, to save the exporters from the liquidity crunch.

Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir informed that he would also request to remove the anomaly of the Circular # 14 of Oct 6, 2011 which specifies that if the unit is located in the affected area and sale is made out of affected area, is not exempted from Income Tax. However, If unit is out of affected area and sale is made in affected areas then it is exempted from Income Tax as it has created disharmony and confusion amongst the businessmen of the KPK Province.