Pkrevenue.com

Author: Mrs. Anjum Shahnawaz

  • Engro Fertilizers reduces urea prices by Rs160

    Engro Fertilizers reduces urea prices by Rs160

    KARACHI: Engro Fertilizers has announced reduction of urea prices by Rs160 per bag effective from February 01, 2020.

    A statement on Friday said that Engro Fertilizers welcomed the decision of the government to reduce Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) on urea.

    In line with the decision and to support the valued farmers of the country, Engro Fertilizers has decided to fully pass on the benefit of change in GIDC rates by announcing a 160/bag reduction in urea prices, effective February 1, 2020.

    It is worth highlighting that the impact of reduction in GIDC varies for different fertilizer manufacturers. Engro Fertilizers is passing on the full impact of the government decision, given the particular mix of gases being received by the company.

    Engro Fertilizers has been a trusted partner of Pakistani farmers for over 50 years and is committed to their well-being by promoting improved farm economics.

    In continuation of its past commitment, Engro Fertilizers has taken the lead in urea price reduction to support the farmer-friendly decision of the government.

  • Rupee eases by two paisas ahead weekly holidays

    Rupee eases by two paisas ahead weekly holidays

    KARACHI: The Pak Rupee eased by two paisas against dollar on Friday owing to demand of the foreign currency ahead of two weekly holidays.

    The rupee ended Rs154.49 to the dollar from last day’s closing of Rs154.47 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    Currency dealers said that the market was remained flat. However, advance buying was witnessed ahead of to two weekly holidays.

    The foreign currency market was initiated at the range between Rs154.44 and Rs154.47. The market recorded day high of Rs154.49 and low of Rs154.47 and closed at Rs154.49.

    The exchange rate in open market however witnessed significant gain in local currency value.

    The buying and selling of the dollar was recorded at Rs154.30/Rs154.60 from previous day’s closing of Rs154.50/Rs154.80 in cash ready market.

  • SBP fixes merchant discount rate up to 2.5% on digital payments

    SBP fixes merchant discount rate up to 2.5% on digital payments

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday announced that Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) for Point of Sale (POS) acquiring Pakistan shall be within the range of 1.5%-2.5% for both existing and new merchants.

    The following merchant categories shall be exempt from this requirement:

    Government and Utilities

    MCC 9211: Court Costs, Including Alimony and Child Support

    MCC 9222: Fines

    MCC 9223: Bail and Bond Payments

    MCC 9311: Tax Payments

    MCC 9399: Government Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)

    MCC 4900: Utilities -Electric, Gas, Water and Sanitary

    Education

    MCC 8211: Elementary and Secondary Schools

    MCC 8220; Colleges, Universities, Professional Schools and Junior Colleges

    MCC 8241: Correspondence Schools

    MCC 8244: Business and Secretarial Schools

    MCC 8249: Vocational and Trade Schools

    MCC 8299: Schools and Educational Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)

    Fuel

    MCC 5541: Service Stations

    MCC 5542: Automated Fuel Dispensers

    MCC5172: Petrolium and Petroleum Products

    MCC 5983: Fuel -Fuel Oil, Wood, Coal, Liquefied Petroleum

    The SBP said that the Interchange Reimbursement Fee (IRF) for debit and prepaid cards issued in Pakistan used on domestic POS terminals shall be capped at 0.5 percent.

    The central bank said that during the past few years, there has been considerable growth in the digital payment infrastructure of the country, especially in the number of debit cards being issued by the banks to their customers.

    Although, the Point of Sale (POS) infrastructure has also grown during the past few years, its growth has largely remained restricted to high value merchants in big cities.

    Some of the key challenges being faced by the POS acquiring industry in Pakistan include high Interchange Reimbursement Fee (IRF), lower than cost Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) to onboard high value merchants and less interest by banks in offering low cost domestic payment cards to their customers.

    The SBP said that the card issuers shall offer SBP approved Domestic Payment Scheme (DPS) Card as the default card at the time of issuance or renewal of debit cards.

    Accordingly card requesting customers shall be offered the following options in order of priority:

    Either an exclusive DPS card or a DPS card co-badged with an International Payment Scheme (IPS)

    An exclusive IPS card upon written request of the customer

    The central bank said that the instructions shall come into effect from April 01, 2020.

  • Senior tax officers oppose return filing date extension

    Senior tax officers oppose return filing date extension

    KARACHI: Senior officers of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) opposed to further extend the last date for filing income tax return for tax year 2019.

    The last date for filing annual return for tax year 2019 is expiring today evening i.e. January 31, 2020. The FBR already granted date extension around five times so far for filing the annual return.

    The senior FBR officers at various tax offices have said that there was no need to further extend the date for filing the income tax returns because sufficient returns had been received by the FBR.

    They further said that the deadline has been given to ensure compliance by taxpayers. They said that returns will be filed in case further time is granted.

    The officers said that time and again extension in return filing date hurt the flow of working at the FBR.

    They said that the FBR should invoke penal action on late return filers in order to ensure future compliance.

    For the tax year 2018 the FBR extended the date for filing income tax returns up to August 09, 2019. Even to date the FBR is receiving income tax returns for the tax year 2018.

    To an estimate the FBR received around 2.6 million returns for tax year 2019 till January 29, 2020. The FBR is expecting to receive 2.7 million returns by January 31, 2020, according to FBR sources.

    The sources said that the FBR had estimated around 3 million returns for tax year 2019. The FBR will issue Active Taxpayers List (ATL) for tax year 2019 on March 01, 2020 and this list will remain applicable till February 28, 2021. Therefore, the return filing for the tax year 2019 will continue till the issuance of ATL for tax year 2020.

    The ATL for tax year 2018 will expire on February 29, 2020. The FBR has received around 2.76 million returns for tax year 2018 as filing of returns for this year is continued so far.

  • Pakistan suspends flight operation with China on coronavirus threat

    Pakistan suspends flight operation with China on coronavirus threat

    KARACHI: Pakistan has suspended direct flight operation to China in wake of coronavirus threat. The direct flight operation will remain suspend till February 02, 2020, said a notification issued by Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

    The notification said: “all direct flight operations between Pakistan and China are to be stalled on immediate basis, initially till 2nd February, 2020, subject to subsequent review.”

    The CAA intimated about the government decision to Air China Pakistan and China Southern Airlines.

    Major airlines of the world have already suspended some flights to China because of the coronavirus outbreak. The airlines that have already suspended flight operations are included: Lufthansan, Air Tanzania, American Airlines, British Airways, FinnAir, Air Canada etc.

    The some of the airlines have suspended flights due to massive drop in demand.

    BBC reported that death toll from the coronavirus outbreak had rise to 170. It reported quoting Chinese health authorities that there were 7,711 confirmed cases in the country as of January 29, 2020.

  • CNIC condition on purchases above Rs50,000 applies from tomorrow

    CNIC condition on purchases above Rs50,000 applies from tomorrow

    ISLAMABAD: The condition of Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) on purchases above Rs50,000 shall apply from tomorrow (February 01, 2020) as relaxation provided to small traders is expiring today.

    The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and representatives of traders’ associations on October 30, 2019 reached on an agreement under which the application of CNIC information was deferred till January 31, 2020.

    Through Finance Act, 2019, it was made mandatory that a registered person making a taxable supply shall issue a serially numbered tax invoice at the time of supply of goods containing the following particulars, in Urdu or English language, namely: –

    (a) name, address and registration number of the supplier;

    (b) name, address and registration, number of the recipient and NIC or NTN of the unregistered person, as the case may be, excluding supplies made by a retailer where the transaction value inclusive of sales tax amount does not exceed rupees fifty thousand, if sale is being made to an ordinary consumer.

    Explanation. – For the purpose of this clause, ordinary consumer means a person who is buying the goods for his own consumption and not for the purpose of re-sale or processing.

    The condition of CNIC or NTN was made mandatory from August 01, 2019.

    However, on opposition from small traders the government after an agreement on October 30, 2019, postponed the applicability of CNIC till January 31, 2020.

    The FBR on October 04, 2019 issued definition / rules related to condition of CNIC.

    The FBR said that keeping in view the problems reported by the registered persons is ensuring proper identity of the buyer to fulfil the requirement of reporting NTN/NIC of the buyer in terms of section 23 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, it is directed that the NIC/NTN of the buyer with respect to taxable supplies to an unregistered person shall be deemed to have been reported in good faith by the supplier provided that:

    (a) The tax invoice complies with the requirements of section 23(b) of the Act.

    (b) Payment made by or on behalf of the unregistered purchaser of the amount of the tax invoice, inclusive of sales tax and applicable further tax, is deposited into the supplier’s declared business bank account.

    (c) The NIC provided by the purchaser is found authenticated by the National Data and Registration Authority (NADRA).

    (d) The NIC/NTN provided is not of the employee of the seller or of his associates as defined under the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

    The issuance of a show cause notice to a registered person being a seller on account of any matter arising out of the NIC provided by a purchaser shall not be made without the prior approval of the Member (IR-Operations), FBR after providing an opportunity to be heard.

  • FBR links 5,783 POS of retailers with online system

    FBR links 5,783 POS of retailers with online system

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has integrated 5,783 Point of Sales (POS) of 286 retailers so far with the hectic efforts of field formation, FBR spokesman said on Thursday.

    The spokesman said that the system had been made fully functional. The entries made through POS have been directly received by the FBR through online system.

    In order to create linkage with the FBR online system, retailers are required to download a software which is available on the FBR’s official website.

    Once the software is downloaded and activated the transactions made by a retailer appeared on FBR system and stored in its database, the spokesman added.

    All tier-1 retailers are required to integrate all their POSs with FBR’s computerized system.

    ‘Tier-1 retailer’ is defined in section 2(43A) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, to be a person who falls in any of the following categories:

    (a) a retailer operating as a unit of a national or international chain of stores;

    (b) a retailer operating in an air-conditioned shopping mall, plaza or centre, excluding kiosks;

    (c) a retailer whose cumulative electricity bill during the immediately preceding twelve consecutive months exceeds Rupees twelve hundred thousand;

    (d) a wholesaler-cum-retailer, engaged in bulk import and supply of consumer goods on wholesale basis to the retailers as well as on retail basis to the general body of the consumers”; and

    (e) a retailer, whose shop measures one thousand square feet in area or more.

    POS integration is mandatory for all tier-1 retailers irrespective of the items they are dealing in.

    All tier-1 retailers whether dealing in textile and leather items or any other item are required by law to integrate their POSs with FBR’s system.

    The rate of sales tax for items sold by integrated retailers shall be the same as for all other suppliers as provided under the Sales Tax Act, 1990.

    Only exception is for locally manufactured textile and leather items, which if sold by integrated retailers are subject to concessionary rate of 14 percent, and if sold by any other supplier are subject to 17 percent standard sales tax.

  • SRB exempts sales tax on low cost housing projects

    SRB exempts sales tax on low cost housing projects

    KARACHI: The Sindh government has exempted sales tax on services provided or rendered to low cost housing projects funded by the federal government or Sindh government.

    Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) issued notification No. 3-4/04/2020 dated January 21, 2020.

    According to the notification: “construction relating to such of the low cost affordable public housing projects as are sponsored and funded by the federal government or by the government of Sindh subject to the condition that the houses are built or constructed on plots of up to 125 square yards or the covered area of each of the apartments and flats, so built or constructed under the project, does not exceed 900 square feet.”

  • FBR invites suggestions for phasing out tax exemption, concessions

    FBR invites suggestions for phasing out tax exemption, concessions

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has invited suggestions from business community and other stakeholders for elimination of tax exemption and concessions.

    The FBR on Thursday issued a notification for inviting income tax proposals for budget 2020/2021.

    The FBR invited proposals from the stakeholders for phasing out tax concessions and exemptions.

    It said that the FBR is currently engaged in the formulation of proposals for the Finance Bill 2020. In order to benefit from the collective wisdom of all the stakeholders for the improvement of tax policy, proposals have been invited for the upcoming budget 2020/2021.

    The FBR said that input/suggestions in the following areas shall be appreciated as a genuine contribution towards framing or a broad based and workable tax policy:

    i. Broadening of tax base for a wider participation in revenue generation efforts;

    ii. Taxation of real income on progressive basis;

    iii. Phasing out of tax concessions and exemptions;

    iv. Removal of tax distortions and anomalies;

    v. Facilitation of taxpayers and ease of doing business;

    vi. Promoting equity in taxation by introducing measures where incidence of tax is higher or affluent classes.

    The FBR asked all the stakeholders to send their proposals by February 07, 2020.

  • Foreign exchange reserves up by $91 million

    Foreign exchange reserves up by $91 million

    KARACHI: The liquid foreign exchange reserves of the country increased by $91 million to $18.362 billion by week ended January 24, 2020, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.

    The foreign exchange reserves of the country were at Rs18.271 billion a week ago.

    The reserves held by the central bank increased by $184 million to $11.915 billion by week ended January 24, 2020 from $11.731 billion a week ago.

    The reserves held by commercial banks fell by $93 million to $6.447 billion from $6.538 billion.