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Meeting with Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Faisalabad

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF CHIEF COMMISSIONER, RTO, FAISALABAD WITH FAISALABAD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY, FAISALABAD 

A meeting was held by the Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue, Regional Tax Office (RTO), Faisalabad with the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Faisalabad (FCCI) on 03-02-2014 in FCCI Complex, East Canal Road, Faisalabad. Following participated:

2. The meeting was started with recitation from Holy Quran. The President, FCCI gave a welcome address and stated that FCCI is the third biggest Chamber in Pakistan and has representation in all sectors of business community. It has 4500 members. FCCI has always highlighted the difficulties of business community at local, provincial and Federal level. Faisalabad textile exports have contributed 50%. Textile, Ginning, Spinning, Processing, Knitwear Garments, Chemical, Beverage, Soap, Sugar and Food sectors are also contributing. It was further reiterated that load shedding of electricity and gas has adversely affected the production and huge increase in production cost has resulted in loss of competitiveness in the international market.
3. FBR has developed a better relationship with the business community which has yielded increase in revenue collection. Department should facilitate the business community and taxpayers may not be punished in procedural constraints. Following issues were also highlighted:-
i. Notices on account of bank account information are creating an awkward situation.
ii. Zero-rating on electricity & gas for textile sector should be done. Zero-rating for export-oriented sectors especially textile sector may be announced as was available in 2005.
iii. New sales tax registrations are not being done properly. Unnecessary documents are demanded from Manufacturers and Importers whose physical verification is marked to LRO by CRO. Visit report is sent to CRO after the delay of 20-25 days. Frivolous objections are raised by LRO on applications.
iv. The declared income of small businesses like traders, powerloom industry may be accepted in respect of the cases selected for audit for the tax year 2012.
v. Threshold of Rs.5 million for registration of sales tax may be increased upto Rs.10 million so that actual trades / businesses are targeted.
vi. Small manufacturers, exporters are not being registered by the Central Registration Office (CRO) due to the objection that utility bills are less than Rs.700,000/-.
vii. STARR database and PRAL system should be linked with each other so that any updation made by CRO is updated in both databases.
viii. Due date for filing of monthly sales tax return is extended on different occasions like Muharram, Eid, etc. Accordingly, due date for filing of withholding statements may also be extended on these occasions.
ix. Rate of sales tax on services is different in provinces and federal level. This should be same in all provinces.
x. Textile sector is facing acute shortage of funds and huge amounts are pending in Duty Tax and Remission for Exports (DTRE). Sales tax refund claims may be processed at the earliest.
4. The Chief Commissioner in his address to the FCCI stressed upon resolving all the above doable issues alongwith the resolve that “an open door” policy shall be followed. It was decided that a task force including the representative of FCCI shall be appointed to look after the issues faced by FCCI such as: Issuance of sales tax refund, Disposal of audit cases, Broadening of the tax base, Issues relating to LRO, Pending issues with CRO, Islamabad, Non activation in STARR system, etc.
5. Thereafter, the Chief Commissioner and his team answered to the questions put forth by the honourable members of the FCCI and asked them to attend their office in person where specific issue were raised.
6. The meeting ended with the vote of thanks from each other. At the end the FCCI was gracious enough to present the shields to the Department.