AGL 40.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.02%)
AIRLINK 127.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.99 (-0.77%)
BOP 6.68 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.21%)
CNERGY 4.49 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-2.39%)
DCL 8.60 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.42%)
DFML 41.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-0.43%)
DGKC 86.71 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.15%)
FCCL 32.16 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.06%)
FFBL 64.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.72 (-1.1%)
FFL 10.29 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.39%)
HUBC 109.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.98 (-0.89%)
HUMNL 14.90 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (1.02%)
KEL 5.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.56%)
KOSM 7.40 Increased By ▲ 0.28 (3.93%)
MLCF 41.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-0.62%)
NBP 60.60 Increased By ▲ 0.51 (0.85%)
OGDC 190.00 Decreased By ▼ -4.69 (-2.41%)
PAEL 27.81 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-0.5%)
PIBTL 7.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-3.13%)
PPL 149.75 Decreased By ▼ -1.42 (-0.94%)
PRL 26.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.56%)
PTC 16.18 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (1.13%)
SEARL 86.02 Increased By ▲ 7.82 (10%)
TELE 7.72 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (4.47%)
TOMCL 35.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.25%)
TPLP 8.14 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (2.91%)
TREET 16.51 Increased By ▲ 0.62 (3.9%)
TRG 53.35 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (1.12%)
UNITY 26.28 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-1.02%)
WTL 1.26 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.79%)
BR100 9,889 Decreased By -31.1 (-0.31%)
BR30 30,611 Decreased By -140.9 (-0.46%)
KSE100 93,355 Increased By 130.9 (0.14%)
KSE30 28,931 Increased By 46 (0.16%)

KARACHI: President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Irfan Iqbal Sheikh has expressed concern over lack of facilitation and fair environment for distributors and merchants of industrial raw materials, who play a vital role in growth of exports as well as import substitution.

Speaking at a meeting with large-scale stakeholders from the platform of Pakistan Chemical and Dyes Merchants Association (PCDMA) at the Federation House, Sheikh maintained that chemical merchants must be brought into the Normal Tax Regime (NTR) from the Minimum Tax Regime (MTR), in which they were put about two years ago after being removed from the Final Tax Regime (FTR).

He proposed that in order to fight the menace of flying invoices in the sector, the condition of customer CNIC copy should be waived and the turnover tax should be brought down to 1.0 percent immediately, from the current 1.25 percent.

Going forward, it should be brought down to 0.5 percent gradually, he said.

The FPCCI chief explained that the traders and middlemen in the industrial raw material supply chain must be facilitated as they are the ones who help keep the wheel of industrial production turning. They support export-oriented industries to meet consignment deadlines, assist in establishing new industries and contribute to preserving precious foreign exchange reserves through import substitution.

Mr Sheikh emphasised that government departments have been neglecting merchants of industrial raw materials, even though they should be facilitated more than importers of luxury goods like cars, mobile phones, branded clothing, and high-end food products.

Kamran Riaz Bharara, the chairman of PCDMA, said the imposition of 4.5 percent Withholding Tax (WHT) on sales by middlemen in the supply chain of the industrial raw materials, who buy from the commercial importers, is counterproductive as it raises the cost of doing business and squeezes the profit margins even further.

This is a substantial impediment in the government’s efforts to establish a robust, efficient and reliable supply chain for the industries.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

Comments

Comments are closed.