Scope of sales tax exemptions extended

The government has extended the scope of sales tax exemptions by extending sales tax exemption on paper for printing of the Holy Quran, parts for assembling and manufacturing of personal computers and laptops, fish feed, fans for dairy farms, bovine semen, preparations for making animal feed, promotional and advertising material distributed free of cost by the exhibitors, hearing aids, liquefied natural gas imported by fertilizer manufacturers for use as feed stock, machinery, equipment, raw materials, components and other capital goods for use in building, fittings, repairing or refitting of ships, boats or floating structures imported by Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works Limited.
Through Finance Bill 2018, the FBR has amended Sixth Schedule (Exemption Schedule) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 to extend the list of sales tax exemptions.
Under the Finance Bill 2018, sales tax exemption has been granted on paper weighing 60 g/m2 for printing of the Holy Quran imported by federal or provincial governments and Nashiran-e-Quran as per quota determined by IOCO; fish feed; fans for dairy farms; bovine semen; preparations for making animal feed; promotional and advertising material including technical literature, pamphlets, brochures and other giveaways of no commercial value, distributed free of cost by the exhibitors; hearing aids (all types and kinds) including hearing assessment equipment; audiometers, tympanometer, ABR and otoacoustic omission; liquefied natural gas imported by fertilizer manufacturers for use as feed stock; plants; machinery, equipment etc for use in building, fittings, repairing or refitting of ships, boats or floating structures imported by Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works Limited; goods supplied to German Development Agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) GIZ; imported construction materials and goods imported by M/s China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (M/s CSCECL), whether or not locally manufactured, for construction of Karachi-Peshawar Motorway (Sukkur-Multan Section) subject to fulfilment of same conditions, limitations and restrictions as are specified under S No. 145 of the table, provided that total incidence of exemptions of all duties and taxes in respect of construction materials and goods imported for the project shall not exceed ten thousand eight hundred ninety-eight million rupees.
Sales tax exemption has been extended to the following parts for assembling and manufacturing of personal computers and laptops: bare PCBs; power amplifier; microprocessor/ controllers; equipment for SMT manufacturing; laptop batteries; adopters; cooling fans; heat sink; hard disk SSD; RAM/ROMS; system on chip/FPGA-IC; LCD/LED screen; motherboards; power supply; optical drives; external ports; network cards; graphic cards; wireless cards; micro phone and trackpad.
Sales tax exemption has been allowed on plant, machinery, equipment plant and machinery, except the items listed under chapter 87 of the Pakistan Customs Tariff, imported for setting up of a special economic zone (SEZ) by zone developers and for installation in that zone by zone enterprises, on one time basis as prescribed in the SEZ Act, 2012 and rules thereunder subject to such condition, limitations and restriction as a Federal Board of Revenue may impose from time to time.
Sales tax exemption has been granted on plant, machinery, equipment including dumpers and special purpose motor vehicles, if not manufactured locally, imported by M/s China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (M/s CSCECL) for the construction of Karachi-Peshawar Motorway (Sukkur-Multan Section) and M/s China Communication Construction Company (M/s CCCC) for the construction of Karakorum Highway (KKH) Phase-II (Thakot-Havellian Section) subject to the laid down conditions.
Sales tax exemption has been granted to the equipment, whether or not locally manufactured, imported by M/s China Railway Corporation to be furnished and installed in Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project subject to the laid down conditions.