ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Tuesday, informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue that an Anomaly Committee had been constituted comprising FBR’s officials to resolve grievances of business community regarding zero rating for textile industry.
Member Inland Revenue-Policy (IR-Policy) Rehmantullah Khan Wazir told the committee that the issue of textile industry for zero rating was brought in to the notice of the FBR. Therefore, FBR formed the committee to resolve grievances of the stakeholders in this regard.
Therefore, he said that textile industry representatives were asked to submit of their presentation in Anomaly Committee of the FBR for addressing the grievances.
Earlier, due course of discussion on different agenda items, the Finance and Revenue Committee strongly recommended that this differential in income tax may be reduced to 4% income tax as final tax on import of raw materials by the commercial importers and 2 % adjustable income tax on import of raw material by the industry.
Moreover, committee unanimously recommended that import of fertilizer (urea) should be opened for private sector, immediately to relief the farmers. It was also recommended that subsidy on DAP (fertilizer) should be maintained @ Rs. 500 instead of Rs. 250.
While considering the matter with regard to fixation of income tax on commercial and industrial importers.
A representative from Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry requested that a level playing field should be provided to both commercial importers and industrial importers and there must be reasonable differential of income tax between them, presently 6 % fix withholding tax is imposed on commercial importers and industrial importers are subject to normal taxation with minimum 1 % on turnover.
Some industries misuse this facility. In this budget auditing of industries is suggested, which will not resolve the matter, rather it will create cumbersome problems and delays. The committee recommended that 10.5 % excise duty should be maintained on Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD). Daniyal Aziz informed the committee that import duty on automobiles may be discussed.