Pakistan FMCG Importers Association (PFIA) has urged the government to provide relief and incentives to the commercial importers as certain measures proposed in the budget for the next financial year will be creating hardships for them. In a joint statement issued here on Tuesday, PFIA Patron in Chief Naseem Ahmad Chawla, Chairman Anjum Nisar and Senior Vice Chairman Nafees-ur-Rehman Barry said that the commercial or legal importers pay taxes at the import stage and contribute significantly to the national exchequer.
The commercial importers were earlier being treated under final tax regime and they were allowed audit exemption on the payment of 6 percent withholding tax. This regime is replaced with minimum tax in the proposed budget. Reassessment of raw material and opening of audit cases of commercial importers have also been proposed in the budget. They said that new proposals were injustice to commercial importers and the same would not be acceptable. They said that commercial importers are also feeding the local industries and their difficulties would also hit the industrial sector hard.
The PFIA leadership observed that bringing commercial importers into minimum tax regime will increase the cost of raw material thus it will also lead to increase in the cost of production of various sectors. They appealed the prime minister and the finance minister to keep the final tax regime for commercial importers and reduce the withholding tax rate to four percent from 6 percent. They also urged the government to reduce different rates of duties for the commercial importers.
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