Pkrevenue.com

Day: September 29, 2020

  • KTBA advises FBR to update tax laws on its website

    KTBA advises FBR to update tax laws on its website

    KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been advised to update tax laws with latest amendments on its official website to facilitate taxpayers as well as tax practitioners.

    The Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) in a letter to FBR Chairman Muhammad Javed Ghani on Tuesday pointed out that the available tax laws such as income tax, sales tax, federal excise and customs are not updated and required to insert latest amendments made through Finance Acts or other legislations.

    In the letter, KTBA President Zeeshan Merchant said that FBR had provided soft copies of certain tax laws on its official website i.e. fbr.gov.pk for the facilitation of taxpayers as well as tax practitioners.

    Merchant invited attention of the FBR chairman towards the fact that the important tax laws had been frequently amended and updated in the recent past through budgetary and other amendments. “However, it has been observed that the income tax laws as well as sales tax, federal excise and customs duty laws, which were available on the website of the FBR, have not yet been updated to incorporate such recent amendments.”

    Since up to date tax laws are presently not available on the website, the same may lead to an inadvertent mistake by the taxpayer while ensuring compliance to the relevant provisions of law.

    KTBA president said that the taxpayers should apply correct, up to date and valid laws in its true letter and spirit in order to be a compliant taxpayer.

    The FBR chairman has been urged to issue necessary instructions for the updating the important direct and indirect tax laws which are available on the FBR’s website.

  • FBR offices to remain open late hours for tax collection

    FBR offices to remain open late hours for tax collection

    ISLAMABAD: In a bid to assist taxpayers in meeting their obligations before the end of the month, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed its Inland Revenue field offices to remain open for extended hours on Wednesday, September 30, 2020. This decision aims to facilitate the payment of duties and taxes on the last day of the month.

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  • SBP doubles loan size for setting up hospital to combat COVID

    SBP doubles loan size for setting up hospital to combat COVID

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has enhanced loan size to Rs 1 billion from Rs500 million for setting up new hospital to combat COVID-19.

    The central bank in a notification said that in order to meet financing needs for setting up new hospitals allowed through a notification issued on July 2020, it has been decided to enhance loan size from Rs 500 million to Rs 1 billion per hospital.

    The scheme for setting up of new hospitals will remain valid up till June 30, 2021, as mentioned in Circular Letter No. 16 of 2020.

    The SBP further invited attention to to IH&SMEFD Circular No. 03 and 04 of 2020 read with IH&SMEFD Circular Letter No. 08 and 16 of 2020 and said that the applications approved by Participating Financial Institutions up till September 30, 2020 will be eligible for refinance under the scheme.

    Hence, LCs established under these approved applications will be eligible for refinance even if these LCs are established after September 30, 2020. Details of all these approved cases should be reported in weekly report of RFCC/IRFCC by 1st October, 2020.

  • FPCCI demands extending refinance scheme for three months to support employment

    FPCCI demands extending refinance scheme for three months to support employment

    KARACHI: The business community has demanded the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) of extending refinance scheme, which was introduced to prevent layoff owing to coronavirus outbreak, for further three months.

    The Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) in a statement on Tuesday urged the central bank to consider extension in refinance scheme to support employees and prevent layoff of workers due outbreak of coronavirus, by December 31, 2020.

    Mian Anjum Nisar, President FPCCI while appreciating the initiative of SBP for introducing Refinance Scheme, which had helped many industrial and service oriented sectors to retain employees during Corona pandemic, stated that since the companies that availed this credit facility through banks have not been recovered from devastating economic impact of covid-19, it would be advisable if Ministry of Finance keep shouldering with SBP and extend this Scheme till end of the year.

    “In many of the countries, the second wave of Corona Virus has already started, Pakistan not being the case of exception, should be prepared to take proactive precautionary in view of increase in corona patients from 4500 in August to more than 1000 in September.

    “Therefore, discontinuation of this facility on September 30, 2020, would not serve the purposes,” added President FPCCI.

    Nisar further added that before discontinuing credit facility on concessional markup rate, Ministry of Finance and SBP need to review the prevailing economic situation closely as such the small and medium sized businesses have not been able to regain pre-corona economic stability. Further, processing of documentation and furnishing of employees’ data to avail credit facility was also a time consuming activity.

    Therefore, withdrawal of this facility at this stage would neither be in the interest of private sector nor in the interest of the Government that aimed at controlling unemployment situation in the country.

    Under the SBP’s Refinance Scheme to Support Employment and Prevent Layoff of Workers due to the impact of COVID-19, businesses that commit to not lay off workers in the next three months can avail credit through banks for the three months of wages and salaries expenses at a concessional markup rate.

  • Share market gains 463 points amid selling pressure

    Share market gains 463 points amid selling pressure

    KARACHI: The share market witnessed gain of 463 points on Tuesday amid selling pressure seen during the trading. The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 41,204 points as against 40,741 points showing an increase of 463 points.

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  • FBR issues return forms in regional languages to facilitate small traders

    FBR issues return forms in regional languages to facilitate small traders

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued income tax return forms in regional languages in order to facilitate small traders and shopkeepers, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

    The spokesman said that according to vision of the Prime Minister and directives of the advisor to prime minister on finance and revenue the FBR had issued simplified income tax return forms in regional languages to facilitate the small traders.

    The spokesman said that the income tax return forms had been issued in Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto and Balochi languages. The forms in regional languages have been uploaded on the FBR’s website.

    The decision to issue return forms in the regional languages to facilitate the small traders, the spokesman said, adding that the FBR was taking all efforts to facilitate the business community.

    The FBR has already issued the return form in national language i.e. Urdu language to facilitate the small traders.

  • Rupee ends firmer amid dollar demand for import, corporate payments

    Rupee ends firmer amid dollar demand for import, corporate payments

    KARACHI: The rupee ended firmer against dollar on Tuesday amid demand of the foreign currency for import and corporate payments.

    The rupee ended Rs165.88 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs165.89 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    Currency experts said that the demand for the greenback was remained higher form importers. Besides, due to closing of quarter end the corporate buyers were also seen active as foreign companies repatriate their profits to their parent companies.

    They said that due to positive sentiments after current account surplus and approval of $300 million by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support Pakistan’s capital market also supported the rupee.

    The experts hoped the local unit main recover in the coming days as the demand for import and corporate payments was eased.

  • FBR may extend date for filing income tax return

    FBR may extend date for filing income tax return

    ISLAMABAD – The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is expected to grant the first extension for filing income tax returns for the tax year 2020, due to delayed issuance of necessary forms. The original deadline for submission is set for September 30, 2020, affecting salaried individuals, businesses, Associations of Persons (AOPs), and companies with special fiscal years.

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