‘FBR to do away with tax discrimination’

KARACHI: On persistent persuasion of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and 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 materials and to levy a uniform rate on raw materials for both types of importers.

"The Notification in this regard will be issued soon by the FBR," Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir, senior vice president of the FPCCI, said in a statement on Saturday.

The FPCCI official said although the raw materials, either imported by commercial importers or industrial importers, is ultimately consumed in industries, large, medium or small; however, commercial importers were subject to minimum tax at the rate of six percent and three percent value-added tax at source, whereas industrial importers were required to pay income tax at 5.5 percent adjustable and no value-added tax.

“Resultantly, the facility is misused by the unscrupulous / fake industrial importers who imported the raw materials more than their requirements and supplied in the local market; thus, rendering heavy losses to the government exchequer, making the commercial importers uncompetitive and forcing them out of the market,” Nasir added.