ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the provincial revenue authorities (PRAs) would sit together at the FBR House on January 12 to review progress on the harmonization of sales tax including definition of "goods" and "services" for the purpose of collection of sales tax.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Friday that the Technical Committee comprising members of the FBR and senior representatives of the provincial revenue authorities would discuss the disputed sales tax issues next week.

During the last meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Tax Council (NTC) held in the Finance Division, a Technical Committee representing the FBR and the provincial revenue authorities was constituted to study and settle disputes in the gray areas.

The committee comprises Aamer Amin Bhatti, chief ST (Operations), FBR; Zainul Abdin Sahi, chairperson PRA Punjab; Syed Mushtaque Kazmi, senior advisor SRB Sindh; Iftikhar Qutub, advisor KPRA and Naseebullah Umrani, member operations BRA, Balochistan.

During the last meeting, the chairman Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) had proposed that a Technical Committee may be constituted to study and settle disputes on the issues discussed in the meeting.

This will be a relevant and useful forum.

The meeting unanimously agreed with the proposal and a Technical Committee was constituted to study and settle disputes in the gray areas discussed in the meeting within the timeframe of one month.

According to the special secretary, Finance Division, following are the main gray areas of sales tax on goods and services: (i) restaurants; (ii) transportation of petroleum products; (iii) toll manufacturing, and (iv) construction business.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021