Withdrawal of 76 corporate IT exemptions: Ordinance to be promulgated anytime soon

ISLAMABAD: The government is all set to promulgate the Tax Laws (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 to withdraw 76 corporate income tax exemptions; tax credit facility to many sectors and allowed exemption of sales tax on disable syringes and raw materials used in the manufacturing of such syringes up to June 30, 2021.

Officials said that the Tax Laws (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 has been approved by the Cabinet and would be signed by the President anytime soon.

The Tax Laws (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 would amend Sales Tax Act 1990 and Income Tax Ordinance 2001. Following its signing by the President, the Ordinance will come into force at once. Once the Ordinance is being tabled before the National Assembly, an amendment would be introduced to change the date for withdrawal of income tax exemptions from July 1, 2021, officials said.

Through the Tax Laws (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, the corporate income tax exemptions would be withdrawn and replaced with the tax credit regime. Tax credit facility has been extended to industrial undertakings; charitable organizations and IT export services under the Ordinance.

Under the Ordinance, 100 percent tax credit would be allowed to the IT services or IT-enabled services after fulfillment of certain conditions including filing of returns/withholding tax statements. A new section, 65F, has been inserted in the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, whereby income of the following taxpayers shall be allowed a tax credit equal to 100 percent of the tax payable including minimum and final taxes as follows:- Firstly, persons engaged in coal mining projects in Sindh supplying coal exclusively to power generation projects; a startup as defined in clause (62A) of section 2 for the tax year in which the startup is certified by the Pakistan Software Export Board and the following two tax years; persons deriving income from exports of computer software or IT services or IT enabled services up to the period ending on June 30, 2025. Provided that eighty per cent of the export proceeds are brought into Pakistan in foreign exchange remitted from outside Pakistan through normal banking channels.

According to the Tax Laws (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, an explanation has been added to the new section of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.

Explanation. - For the purpose of this clause, i. "IT services" include software development, software maintenance, system integration, web design, web development, web hosting and network design; and ii. "IT enabled services" include inbound or outbound call centers, medical transcription, remote monitoring, graphics design, accounting services, HR services, telemedicine centers, data entry operations, locally produced television programs and insurance claims processing.

Under the Ordinance, the said tax credit shall be available subject to fulfillment of the following conditions: (I), return has been filed; (II) tax required to be deducted or collected has been deducted or collected and paid; (III) withholding tax statements for the immediately preceding tax year have been filed and (IV) sales tax returns for the tax periods corresponding to relevant tax year have been filed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021