A meeting of the Committee on Sales Tax was held here on Thursday with Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, Member National Assembly in chair to discuss issues related to sales tax. A statement received here said the Committee on Income Tax was also met under the chairmanship of Shahid Hussain Asad, Senior Member Inland Revenue Policy, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
Leading representatives from the business community and FBR senior members participated in day-long discussions. There were animated discussions on issues of sales tax at length and the modalities of arriving at a consensus on the stalemate issue that stemmed originally from the 0.6 percent withholding tax on bank transactions, but have expanded into many other directions.
The business community on deliberations, finally agreed to focus discussions to 28 points of contention that were listed down. The senior members of FBR Shahid Hussain Asad and Muhammad Ashraf Khan assured the representatives of the business community that FBR is not to take any decision on the proposals but will place all proposals of the business representatives before the Finance Minister for decision, therefore they must rest assured that all their proposals will be considered by the government and that FBR will not hold back any proposal.
There are three separate committees formed by government to address sales tax, income tax and communications issues. The committees are to complete their internal deliberations and submit recommendations to the Finance Minister by 15 November. The sum of decisions on all items will finally be announced by the Finance Minster after discussions with the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Representatives of the business community were satisfied with progress on many items and expressed positive expectations on a timely agreement on issues by 15th November. They agreed upon issues including one-page simple return form for non-filers.-PR