FBR urged to implement uniform duty, taxes

KARACHI: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to apply uniform duty and taxes for industrial and commercial importers of raw material by paper industry.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Khalid Tawab, Senior Vice President, FPCCI urged FBR chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan to do away with the discrimination in duties and taxes between commercial and industrial importers of raw material as the raw material is ultimately consumed by the industry - small, medium or large scale – as it causes corruption, creates distortion in promotion of tax culture and is prone to misuse.

The statement was issued after a meeting with a delegation of All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association (APPMA) represented by its Chairman Muhammad Anees.

Tawab while referring to paper and paper board Pakistan Customs Tariff (CH. 48 of Customs Act, 1969) said that although paper imported by both commercial and industrial importers to be consumed by the industry in a similar manner for manufacturing of finished goods.

However, a commercial importer pays 17 percent sales tax besides 3 percent advance value addition tax and 6.5 percent withholding tax at customs stage whereas industrial importers pay value addition at later stage and income tax according to declaration.

“This is a sufficient incentive and motivates the unscrupulous commercial importers to import the raw material under the guise of manufacturers,” he said. 

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry SVP urged the FBR to levy identical / uniform tariff for both commercial and industrial importers or issue any alternative to remove distortion.

Besides this, he also urged the Chief Collector of Customs (Preventive) for immediate implementing SRO 1220(I)/2015 issued December 04, 2015 for restricting shipping companies / agents from collecting illegal charges from the importers.