FPCCI meets with PM Abbasi, Miftah Ismail on budget anomalies tomorrow
The FPCCI delegation will be led by its president and senior vice president
(Web Desk) – A delegation of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) led by President Ghazanfar Bilour and Senior Vice President Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir will hold a meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Federal Finance Minister Dr. Miftah Ismail to discuss the issues and anomalies of the recently announced Federal Budget 2018-19 for their removal expeditiously before the passage of the Finance Bill 2018 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 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 KP.
