FCCI urges government to club all taxes, trim value to single digit

Double taxation is a major impediment for the economic growth and government must club all federal and provincial taxes besides trimming its value to single digit, said Acting President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Mian Tanveer Ahmed.
He was addressing a meeting after participating in a special meeting with Makhdoom Hashim Provincial Finance Minister in which specific problems related to Faisalabad Dry Port Trust (FDPT) were discussed.
He said Karachi had its own geo-strategic importance because of sea port. "Our imports and exports are routed through this city. Sindh government has exploited its sea port by imposing 1.15 percent excise duty on all imports. However, after the promulgation of 18th amendment, Punjab government had also clamped Punjab Infrastructure Cess at the rate of 0.9% from July 1, 2015. This decision has inflicted a severe blow to the up country dry ports which have now become unviable only due to the multiplicity of the taxes," he added.
He said in order to avoid double taxation most of the importers preferred to clear their import consignments at Karachi and hence, the taxes were paid at Karachi. He explained that on the basis of tax collection at Karachi port, the Sindh province claimed that it was contributing 70% towards the total revenue collection and thus it got lion share on the basis of NFC (National Finance Commission) Award.
On the other hand the Punjab and Khyber PakhtonKhawa (KPK) are deprived of their due share. He demanded that imports destined for Punjab or KPK but cleared at Karachi might be included in the revenue generated by the concerned province. He said Punjab government should either resolve that issue at tax collection level or withdraw Punjab Infrastructure Cess to provide a breathing space to upcountry ports.
The meeting was told that government got Rs 4 billion from Punjab Infrastructure Cess however, necessary data would be collected from Karachi for the import consignments of Punjab.
"It will help provincial government of Punjab to evolve a viable strategy to settle this issue on permanent basis."
The meeting decided that on the receipt of this data, necessary recommendation would be made in next meeting.
The meeting was also attended by chairman FDPT Chaudhary Mushtaq Ali Cheema, Mian Muhammad Latif, Muzzamil Sultan and chairman Punjab Revenue Authority in addition to other officials of the concerned departments.