The Ministry of Information Technology would move a fresh summary to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for withdrawal of tax on sale of computers from next financial year 2008-2009.
According to announcement of Pakistan Computer Association (PCA), issued here on Monday, a delegation headed by its president and senior vice president Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry Munawar Iqbal met the Federal Minister for Information Technology Abdullah Riar and Secretary IT Hifzul Rehman in his office.
The Minister assured the delegation for sending a summary to FBR for abolishing sales tax on computer products from the upcoming budget. He further said that information technology is in infancy in Pakistan and most of the computer users live in urban areas.
Government is making efforts so that 50per cent of the population should use computers, for which withdrawal of taxes will be an added incentive, he informed.
The Minister said that Information Technology City would be established near Chak Shehzad with the collaboration of China. The PCA office will also be established in that area with the recommendations of IT Ministry, he added. Earlier, Munawar Iqbal in his briefing informed the minister that their association represents all the computer dealers and vendors of Pakistan.
He informed Abdullah Riar that last year the PCA had requested the IT Ministry for 15 per cent reduction in taxes on the import of computer parts. He added that Ministry of Finance and FBR did not eliminate the taxes due to pressure of International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The PCA President said that IT equipments are beyond the reach of common users. The imposition of 15 per cent GST on imports of these components resulted in declining import orders creating gap between demand and supply. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the smugglers became active to fill this gap causing loss to the government's revenues.
President PCA suggested that government should strictly copy right act. PCA want to see every student of Pakistan computer literate. The meeting was attended by Yousaf Jamal, Arshad Janjua, Najumul Sehr, Abdullah Malik, Furqan Murtaza, Sufi Waleed, Omer Farooq, Asad Haider and Chaudhry Khalid Mehmood.
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