A delegation of the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB), headed by Akhtar Jamil Khan, Member, Operations, SRB, along with Mumtaz Ahmad, Member, Legal and Co-ordination, SRB, visited the Overseas Investors' Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OICCI) to have a comprehensive discussion on the recently promulgated Sindh Sales Tax on Services Act 2011 (SSTSA).
A large number of OICCI members attended the meeting. Sirajuddin Aziz, chairperson of OICCI taxation subcommittee, and Abdul Aleem, Secretary General, OICCI, welcomed the delegation. Shabbar Zaidi, tax specialist and Member of Revenue Advisory Council, FBR (Policy Advisory Board), was also present to add value to the discussion. OICCI Secretary General gave a brief presentation on the role of OICCI and shared with the delegation OICCI's approach on taxation matters.
Mumtaz Ahmad gave a brief presentation on the SSTSA 2011 and shared that the current tax-to-GDP ratio is 10.2 percent, out of which the federal ratio is 9.2 percent and provinces share one percent of it. He said that the province was contributing around 52 percent in the total federal revenue collection, whereas it was receiving only three percent of it.
He said that starting from fiscal year 2011-12, Sindh would collect sales tax on services rendered in the province at the rate of 16 percent and 19.5 percent on telecommunication services.
OICCI Members sought clarification from SRB regarding the input tax claim adjustments and inquired whether services such as telecommunication, advertisement, insurance and freight forwarding would be subject to double taxation since federal excise duty (FED) is already applicable on them. Another major cause of concern of OICCI was the withholding of Sales Tax from vendors/service providers who are non-resident of Sindh. They also wanted clarification on the consequences of doing business with a non-registered vendor/service provider. SRB satisfactorily clarified these matters which in essence appeared reasonable.
Regarding the services rendered or acquired from a blacklisted vendor, SRB said that the issue has been resolved with the FBR and an amendment would soon be issued by the federal authorities. SRB clarified that based on suggestions and inputs from stakeholders like OICCI, the Sindh Sales Tax Act will be improved and made user-friendly for affected parties. Jamil shared that SRB has already made a Technical Advisory Committee to resolve issues as they surface during implementation phase. SRB representatives also gave a practical demonstration of their website which has a swift enrolment process and is linked with the FBR website.-PR