Textile industrialists await notification

KARACHI: Textile industrialists are reeling under panic owing to non-issuance of the notification of extension for the exemption of sales tax on the import of machinery for another three years (from 2018-19 to 2020-21), a statement said on Tuesday.

“Despite being approved by the federal cabinet as well as Economic Coordination Committee ECC, the Federal Revenue Board (FBR) has not issued the notification and as a result tons of machinery is stuck at the port,” textile sector associations said in a joint statement.

The statement said due to non-issuance of subject notification the exporters were liable to pay sales tax and apply for refunds at a later stage.

“However, FBR has to refund the sales tax amount deducted on import of machinery, whereas exporters’ billions of rupees in refunds are already pending,” the statement said.

It said the extension was approved to provide relief to exporters and was aimed at improving overall technological configuration of the sector including replacement of new machinery with the obsolete one and increase overall investment.

“After approval of such extension, textile industrial units have imported a lot of machinery,” the statement said.