KARACHI: The Finance Bill 2019 has proposed to reintroduce minimum tax for commercial importers and ship breakers for tax collected at import stage.
The Tax collected at import stage from commercial importer remained under final tax regime till Finance Act, 2018. In order to document the economy, Finance Act 2018 made tax collected at import stage from commercial importer as minimum tax[the_ad id=”31605″]However, subsequently, the minimum tax for commercial importer was abolished to reintroduce final tax vide Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Act, 2019. The Bill now proposes to reintroduce minimum tax for commercial importers and ship breakers for tax collected at import stage.
The intention of legislature to promote documentation of economy by abolishing final tax regime is a positive step. However, the policy should be implemented consistently to avoid unnecessary confusion, which affects the decision making of the business community.