KARACHI: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has announced on Monday that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is deprived of its authority of issuing concessionary statutory regulatory orders (SROs).
Henceforth, FBR would not issue any SROs providing exemptions from customs duty, sales tax and income tax.
Moreover, concessionary SROs worth Rs120 billion are being quashed.
Ishaq Dar during his budget speech on Friday said that the concessionary SROs regime created severe distortions in the system and only served a particular group of people.
“These concessionary SROs were issued to promote investment in the industrial sector and attract foreign investors but it did not serve any purpose. The industrial sector could not get any benefit, but some particular lobbies overused the regime only,” Dar said.
Finance Minister said that last year concessions worth Rs105 billion were ended adding that for the upcoming fiscal year concessions worth Rs120 billion are being quashed.
Dar said that the beneficiary lobbies of the concessionary regime were quite powerful and influential adding that despite all the pressure, Nawaz government has decided to end the concessionary regime.