PCMA questions committee

KARACHI: Pakistan Cloth Merchants Association (PCMA) Chairman Ahmed Chinoy on Tuesday demanded the federal government to include a representative from textile industry to the three-member ‘anomalies’ committee it had constituted to address the differences in Budget 2020.

He urged stakeholders to give their feedback on the draft of Finance Bill, 2020 latest by June 17, 2020 to the Tariff Policy Wing, Ministry of Commerce.

The federal government has constituted a three-member ‘anomalies’ committee headed by Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood, with Industries Minister Hammad Azhar, and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairperson Nausheen Javaid Amjad as members to address the anomalies in Budget 2020.

The feedback received from the stakeholders would be examined by the committee for its incorporation.

Chinoy asked the government to restore zero-rating on GST – “No Payment No Refund Regime” through revival of SRO 1125. “The duty drawback of taxes (DDT) should be increased from half and it must be fully paid. Withholding tax should be reduced from one percent to zero percent for exporters, while custom rebate should be refunded electronically through SBP along with export proceeds,” he demanded.

He requested the government to correct charges of utilities before July 1, 2020. “Exporting sectors would be charged Rs24/kwh as normal B3 industrial tariff instead of the earlier Rs12 and even if RLNG is continued at $6.5/MMBTU this contrasts with $3.5 RLNG/gas tariff for India and Bangladesh.”

Chinoy said it had been agreed that Rs20 billion would be allocated for energy for use in maintaining 7.5 cents/kwh for electricity and $ 6.5/MMBTU for RLNG/gas. The budget however only allocates Rs10 billion for RLNG.