Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue, Haroon Akhtar Khan on Saturday constituted a committee on deferred sales tax refund of textile industry which will present its report in one week. He made this announcement during a meeting with representatives of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) at its Punjab office. Member Customs, Member IT Operations, Chief Commissioner Customs, LTU and RTOs from Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad regions were present on this occasion.
Haroon claimed that the government had cleared all the refunds. He said the government is committed to implementing Rs 180 billion textile package announced by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. He admitted that slight delay in implementation was due to some technical issues. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi himself is taking keen interest in solving the issues faced by textile industry, he said.
Haroon said that the government is focusing on macro-economic stability. He also said that the biggest issue faced by our country is current account deficit. By increasing our exports, remittances and foreign direct investment, we can solve this issue. Chairman APTMA Amir Fayyaz, Patron-in-Chief APTMA Gohar Ejaz, Chairman APTMA Punjab Ali Pervaiz and other office-bearers of the Association briefed the special assistant about the problems faced by the industry.
During the meeting, both the sides discussed in detail the issues pertaining to sales tax refunds on deferred, current and rolled back refund payment orders (RPOs). Also, the issues relating to the imports of raw materials by the basic textile industry were discussed during the meeting. The APTMA management appreciated the Special Assistant to Prime Minister and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officers of field formation for prioritizing clearance of pending refunds of the industry and let it come out of the adverse situation due to the liquidity crunch being confronted by the industry.
The management pointed out that release of sales tax refunds will help restoration of viability of the textile industry ahead. It also appreciated the PM for directing the Federal Commerce and Textile Minister to formulate a long-term textile policy to ensure viability and growth to meet target of doubling exports in next five years. The APTMA management hoped that the interaction between the two sides would boost industrial growth that would also contribute to the revenue generation goal of the government.
Chairman APTMA Punjab Ali Pervaiz urged the visiting FBR authorities to evaluate the performance of their filed staff on gross revenue collection otherwise they would keep holding refunds back to achieve revenue target. Haroon Akhtar Khan assured the APTMA management of early resolution of industry issues in line with the proposals put forward by the industry in the meeting.
No content from Business Recorder shall be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication, or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Business Recorder shall not be responsible or held liable for any error of fact, opinion or recommendation and also for any loss, financial or otherwise, resulting from business or trade or speculation conducted, or investments made, on the basis of the information posted here. Nor shall Business Recorder be held liable for any actions taken in consequence." >Copyright Business Recorder, 2017