KARACHI: President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan has assured Pakistan Chemicals & Dyes Merchants Association (PCDMA) will approach the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and other concerned authorities so that the issues being faced by commercial importers could be amicably resolved.
Exchanging views at a meeting during the visit of PCDMA delegation to KCCI, President KCCI requested PCDMA to submit practical suggestions for resolving the issues being faced by the commercial importers.
General Secretary BMG AQ Khalil, Senior Vice President KCCI Arshad Islam, Vice President KCCI Shahid Ismail and KCCI Managing Committee members attended the said meeting with PCDMA delegation led by its Chairman Amin Yousuf Balgamwala, which also comprised of Vice Chairman Asif Ebrahim, Former Chairman Haroon Agar, Arif Balgamwala and others.
President KCCI was fairly optimistic that the issue pertaining to SRO 1190 will certainly be taken into consideration and resolved on KCCI’s intervention.
He also sought PCDMA’s suggestions for realistic valuation ruling so that the same could be forwarded to relevant authority for consideration with a view to provide a level playing field to commercial importers.
While agreeing to Chairman PCDMA’s suggestion to form a committee so that collective efforts could be made to get the issues resolved, Agha Shahab sought PCDMA’s nominations for the proposed Committee.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman PSDMA Amin Yousuf Balgamwala brief President KCCI about the issues pertaining to Sales Tax, particularly the SRO 1190 being faced by the commercial importers. “We are facing a lot of problems in value addition and have constantly been sending letters to concerned authorities but no relief has been provided so far”, he said, adding that the valuation ruling, which have not been revised since many years, must be regularly revised after every three months.
He further mentioned that as the CNIC condition will come into force from January 2020, therefore collective efforts have to be made on time to avoid any problems in future. “It is really unfortunate commercial importers, who regularly pay all their outstanding taxes, are being called tax evader and accordingly treated, which is not justifiable”, he added.