KARACHI: On persistent persuasion of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has agreed to do away with the discrimination in taxes between industrial and commercial importers of raw material and to levy a uniform rate on raw material for both type of importers.
“The Notification in this regard will be issued soon by the FBR,” Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir, Sr. Vice President of FPCCI said in a press release issued today.
The SVP of FPCCI elaborated that although the raw material, either imported by commercial importer or industrial importer is ultimately consumed in industries – large, medium or small – however, commercial importers were subject to Minimum Tax at the rate of 6% and 3% value added tax at source whereas industrial importers were required to pay income tax at the rate of 5.5% adjustable and no value added tax.
“Resultantly, the facility is misused by the unscrupulous / fake industrial importers who imported the raw material more than their requirement and supplied in the local market thus rendering heavy losses to the government exchequer, making the commercial importers uncompetitive and forcing them out of market”, he added.