The buying rate means an exchange company or a bank buys foreign currency from a customer.
The selling rate means an exchange company or a bank sells the foreign currency from a customer.
The rate has been updated at 05:51 AM Pakistan Standard Time (PST).
The UAE Dirham /PKR parity depends on open market rates, they are set by the market forces based on foreign currency demand.
Disclaimer: Team PKRevenue.com provides the available rates of the open market, which are subject to change every hour. Team PKRevenue.com provides the available exchange rates at the time of posting the story. So the team is not responsible for any inaccuracy of the data.
The buying rate means an exchange company or a bank buys foreign currency from a customer.
The selling rate means an exchange company or a bank sells the foreign currency from a customer.
The rate has been updated at 05:44 AM Pakistan Standard Time (PST).
The UK Pound Sterling /PKR parity depends on open market rates, they are set by the market forces based on foreign currency demand.
Disclaimer: Team PKRevenue.com provides the available rates of the open market, which are subject to change every hour. Team PKRevenue.com provides the available exchange rates at the time of posting the story. So the team is not responsible for any inaccuracy of the data.
The buying rate means an exchange company or a bank buys foreign currency from a customer.
The selling rate means an exchange company or a bank sells for foreign currency from a customer.
The rate has been updated at 05:42 AM Pakistan Standard Time (PST).
The Euro /PKR parity depends on open market rates, they are set by the market forces based on foreign currency demand.
Disclaimer: Team PKRevenue.com provides the available rates of the open market, which are subject to change every hour. Team PKRevenue.com provides the available exchange rates at the time of posting the story. So the team is not responsible for any inaccuracy of the data.
The buying rate means an exchange company or a bank buys foreign currency from a customer.
The selling rate means an exchange company or a bank sells for foreign currency from a customer.
The rate has been updated at 05:36 AM Pakistan Standard Time (PST).
The Saudi Riyal /PKR parity depends on open market rates, they are set by the market forces based on foreign currency demand.
Disclaimer: Team PKRevenue.com provides the available rates of the open market, which are subject to change every hour. Team PKRevenue.com provides the available exchange rates at the time of posting the story. So the team is not responsible for any inaccuracy of the data.
KARACHI: Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has highlighted the issue of unjustified audit notices served to taxpayers and said as a result companies are incurring huge administrative costs.
The OICCI in its proposals for budget 2022/2023 submitted to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) pointed out that each year companies are served with notices without any proper justification, requiring them to produce large volume of data and reconciliation.
This is against the concept of Universal Self-Assessment Scheme whereby a tax return filed is generally considered to be correct in the eyes of FBR unless there is proper justification to prove otherwise.
“As a result, companies are incurring huge administrative costs for audit every year as well as litigation costs to pursue their matters before various appellate forums for an indefinite period of time,” the OICCI said.
It recommended that the previous limitation of conducting tax audits once in every three years should be restored.
Rules to be implemented under Section 177(2) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 defining risk based, sample driven and cost-efficient audit criteria instead of calling 100 per cent information for voluminous transactional data resulting in tedious exercises, wastage of man hours and no additional benefits to national exchequer.
Timeline to conclude audit after submission of requisite information by the taxpayer should be specifically provided in section 177 of the Ordinance.
FBR letter on withdrawal of earlier directives related to attachment of bank accounts dated October 11, 2021 should be withdrawn and it should be provided in the law that recovery proceedings shall not be initiated until tax assessments have passed at least one independent forum.
To reduce the litigation disposal time and avoid unnecessary litigations, it is recommended: “Proviso should be added to section 124 that in case Commissioner fails to issue appeal effect order within stipulated time period, taxpayers’ position should be deemed in effect.”
The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), representing foreign investors in Pakistan, has put forth a series of demands to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), with a key focus on the inter-adjustment of income and sales tax refunds as part of the law.
KARACHI: Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has presented recommendations to eliminate illicit trade in Pakistan.
In its proposals for budget 2022/2023 presented to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the OICCI stressed the need of structural reforms in Pakistan customs to bring Illicit Trade into tax ambit.
It said custom valuation should be done by using latest method of valuation including, online search and matching international and regional pricing and taking local legal brand owners on board.
Unauthorized imports of counterfeit products should be effectively checked through registration of brands with the custom authorities in coordination with the original brand owner/ registered in Pakistan.
The data of import should be public property (restrictively) to ensure transparency, which will also help in taking over of goods under section 25A of the Custom Act, 1969.
Control the Afghan Transit Trade:
a) Revise the ATTA based on current reality, to protect the revenue base of Pakistan without hurting the real spirit of such agreements. Engage key stakeholders from OICCI and business community in Pakistan in such re-negotiation.
a) Introduce tighter penalties (e.g., criminal liability) for illicit trade across categories across the whole value chain – retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.
b) Introduce a special division/ task force to raid retailers and manufacturers to confiscate and destroy illicit stocks.
Moreover, different rates of sales tax on goods and services i.e. standard, reduced, specified etc. prevailing in the country lead to a number of issues for business organizations operating all over the country.
It is recommended that sales tax rates (federal and provincial), both on goods and services, should be harmonized throughout the country.
Earlier, the OICCI suggested the FBR to revamp withholding income tax regime in order to facilitate compliant taxpayers.
In line with the recommendations, the withholding tax regime has been subject to changes, the rationalization of withholding tax on imports and discriminating withholding tax on the basis of status of the payee is a good step towards rationalization of regime. However, there is still large room for improvement. The impact of the withholding tax regime on “Ease of Doing Business” for the large taxpayers is still very significant.
WHT regime should be revamped and reduced from existing over twenty-six to five rates only for filers.
Withholding tax should be applicable on inactive taxpayers only, or alternatively:
a) Withholding tax rates applicable on services is 8 per cent minimum tax regardless of the actual taxable income of the service provider. The nature of this tax effectively becomes indirect tax and increases the cost of doing business for service providers, hence, tax on services should be made adjustable.
b) Withholding tax deduction under section 153 (1)(a) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 which is currently considered as minimum tax for all the suppliers (except manufacturers and listed companies) should be made adjustable at least for corporates appearing in active taxpayers’ list.
Through Finance Act 2021 under section 165 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, requirement of filing reconciliation between annual withholding statement and audited accounts is introduced. It has resulted in additional compliance burden on active taxpayers and should be abolished.
Companies appearing in Active Taxpayers List (ATL) and obtained exemption certificate by discharge of full year tax liability in advance should be dispensed with requirements to obtain separate withholding tax exemption certificates under sections 151, 234, 235, 236, 236G and 236H.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s total foreign exchange reserves fell by $447 million to $17.03 billion by week ended April 08, 2022, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.
The foreign exchange reserves of the country were $17.477 billion a week ago i.e. April 01, 2022.
The official reserves of the State Bank fell by $469 million to $10.85 billion by week ended April 08, 2022 as compared with $11.32 billion a week ago. The SBP attributed the decline in foreign exchange reserves to external debt repayments.
The foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks however increased by $20 million to $6.178 billion by week ended April 08, 2022 as compared with $6.158 billion a week ago.
KARACHI: Banks have approved Rs180 billion as loan for low cost housing, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.
The SBP said building upon current momentum, banks have shown strong progress in approving and disbursing the financing under Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar Scheme against the manifold increase in applications by borrowers to avail housing finance.
Up to April 11, 2022, banks received applications for housing finance amounting to Rs409 billion, which was merely Rs57 billion a year ago, reflecting an increase of more than 7 times. Out of these, banks have approved applications amounting to Rs180 billion and disbursed Rs66 billion against the approved applications.
This shows an increase in approvals of applications of more than 11 times as, a year ago, in April 2021, the banks had approved only Rs16 billion.
Similar trends can also be observed in the overall financing to the housing and construction sector by banks. Banks almost doubled their housing and construction finance portfolio to Rs404 billion as of March 31, 2022 from Rs204 billion a year earlier. In increasing their housing and construction finance, banks have also achieved, almost 100 per cent, the first quarter target of Rs405 billion for 2022.
To improve provision of financing for the housing and construction sector to increase adequate housing in the country and boost construction sector activities, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) with the support of Government of Pakistan has taken several measures since July 2020. In October 2020, the Government of Pakistan augmented these efforts by introducing the Government Markup Subsidy Scheme, now commonly known as Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar (MPMG) Scheme. Available in both conventional and Islamic mode, this scheme enables banks to provide financing for the construction and purchase of houses at very low financing rates for low to middle income segments of the population.
Key initiatives taken under MPMG scheme included allowing acceptance of third party guarantee during the construction period, waiver of Debt Burden Ratio (DBR) in case of informal income and the introduction of standard facility offer letter by the banks. SBP also advised banks to develop and deploy income estimation models for borrowers with informal sources of income. In addition to gauge readiness, knowledge and appropriateness of behavior of banking staff towards customers, regular mystery shopping of banking branches were also conducted by State Bank all over the country.
The current progress under MPMG is also attributed to banks’ improved preparedness for handling housing finance that includes alignment of banks’ strategic focus, continued improvements in their systems and procedures, training and capacity building of staff, extensive marketing and leverage of technology to reach out to customers. These improvements have helped banks in better handling of financing requests of potential customers. The huge influx of applications and subsequent approvals of financing by banks under the Scheme indicates that current momentum of disbursements under MPMG will continue in the coming months as well.
STATE BANK OF PAKISTAN
SBP also advised housing and construction finance targets to banks on July 15, 2020. Banks were required to increase their housing and construction finance portfolio to 5 percent of their domestic private sector advances by the end of 2021. As a result, banks’ financing to housing and construction sector increased to Rs367 billion as of December 31, 2021 from Rs148 billion as of June 30, 2020. For 2022, banks have been advised to increase their housing and construction portfolio to 7 percent of their domestic private sector advances i.e. up to Rs560 billion.
