KP jewellers reject PoS system, imposition of ‘3 percent’ sales tax

PESHAWAR: Traders attached with jewellery and gems sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have rejected the imposition of 3 percent sales tax (ST), installation of machines under the Point of Sale (PoS) system and size of shops by measurement or square feet, which were tantamount to economic murder of people attached with this sector.

The traders asked the higher authorities concerned to stop harassment, issuance of notices and unnecessary actions to avoid any unpleasant incident.

Furthermore, they emphasized that all issues should be resolved through negotiation. They said there is no input of Gold and jewelers only charged the cost of redesigning and polishing gold and gems/ precious stones.

All Pakistan Sarafa Zargaran Gems and Jewellery Traders and Exporters Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chairman Amin Hussain Babar, Patron in chief Haji Muhammad Iqbal, president of the Association Haroon Rashid Chand told a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday that jewelers sector has confronted with enormous difficulties in the prevailing circumstances.

In wake of the rising gold prices, they said the traders attached with jewellery and gems sector are hardly fulfilling their expenses on a regular basis. A total of 32000 shopkeepers of gold throughout the country and a large number of people have been attached with this sector, they informed.

Keeping in view the current scenario; the gold jewelers called imposition of sales tax by 3 percent, POS system and size of shops by measurement or square feet as highly unfair and unjust, so we fully reject them.

Babar Amin said a delegation of jewelers held a meeting with former finance minister Miftah Ismail after that a ten members committee was constituted by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and held verbal and written communication with members of the body which proved meaningless uptill now. “We demand reactivation of the committee that had been constituted to sort out position solution to all issues, so that it will not only ensure revenue generation for government but all people attached with this sector would also pay taxes favorably,” He said traders attached with this sector want to pay taxes but unfortunately FBR didn’t want to collect taxes.

The jewelers asked the FBR to stop unnecessary harassment and immediately withdraw notices in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and rest parts of the country. If the unwarranted actions won’t stop then the situation will get worse so the responsibility will rest upon the government, Finance Minister and FBR would be responsible for any untoward incident, the jewelers warned.

Office bearers of the association on the occasion demanded representation before framing new policies on permanent grounds to prevent from spreading anarchy and the situation should remain under control as well.

Apart from the association Secretary General Tahir Mehmood Bhatti, Senior vice president Naeem Ramazan, jewelers association office bearers across the KP, prominently Latif ur Rehman, Saeedul Jan, Abdul Hamid, Hasnain Sheraz, Abdul Haseeb, Abid Saeed, Syed Ali, Fareeq Muhammad Saraf, Seth Javed Iqbal, Khalid Muhammad, Muhammad Naeem Bangash, Shahid Khan, Fayyaz M Durrani and others were present during the presser.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023