(22 Jan, 2018)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday demanded resolution to the long awaited problem faced by commercial importers in term on difference in tax ratios for industrial and commercial importers.
He urged Prime Minsiter Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Finance Advisor Miftah Ismail, Minister of state for finance Rana M. Afzal Khan and Chairman FBR Tariq Mehmood Pasha to impose same income and sales tax on commercial and industrial importers without any discrimination to provide them levelled playing field.
The veteran business leader while talking to the business community said that export based industries play vital role in economic and industrial development of the country; commercial importers are the backbone of export based industries. He further stated that additional tax on raw material import by commercial importers is unjust and should be eliminated.
Commercial importers pay 6 percent advance income tax which is non-refundable while industrial importers pay 5.5 percent advance income tax, which is refundable. Likewise, commercial importers pay 3 percent value addition tax in addition to 17 percent sales tax while industries do not pay any value addition tax.
The former minister said that commercial importers are compelled to pay addition 2 percent tax on accumulated amount of sales to non-registered individuals, which makes a total of 11 percent additional tax paid by commercial importer while industries pay 5.5 percent adjustable tax.
He said that it has become difficult to continue imports due to additional taxes, as few industrialist get undue favor of taxation relief and imports more than the existing demand to sale the excess imports on lower prices in the local markets, causing more monetary losses to honest industrialists and commercial importers.
