Pkrevenue.com

Author: Mrs. Anjum Shahnawaz

  • FBR notifies transfers, postings of BS-20 IRS officers

    FBR notifies transfers, postings of BS-20 IRS officers

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday notified transfers and postings of BS-20 officers of Inland Revenue Service (IRS) with immediate effect until further orders.

    The FBR notified transfers and postings of following officers:

    01. Muhammad Farrukh Majid (Inland Revenue Service/BS-20) has been transferred and posted as Commissioner Inland Revenue Inland Revenue (Appeals-V), Lahore from the post of Commissioner, (HRM) Corporate Regional Tax Office, Lahore.

    02. Ms. Irum Sarwar (Inland Revenue Service/BS-20) has been transferred and posted as Commissioner Inland Revenue (Appeals-VI), Lahore from the post of Commissioner, (HRM) Large Taxpayers Unit, Lahore.

    03. Ms. Ayesha Imran Butt (Inland Revenue Service/BS-20) has been transferred and posted as Commissioner Inland Revenue (Appeals-VII), Lahore from the post of Commissioner, (IP/TFD/HRM) Regional Tax Office II, Lahore.

    The FBR said that the officers who are drawing performance allowance prior to issuance of this notification shall continue to draw this allowance on the new place of posting.

  • SBP announces incentives for banks to make remittance transactions attractive

    SBP announces incentives for banks to make remittance transactions attractive

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday made attractive the inflow of home remittances through formal channels and announced incentives for banks.

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  • FBR announces implementation of agreement with traders from next week

    FBR announces implementation of agreement with traders from next week

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday announced implementation of agreement with traders from next week.

    FBR chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi in a tweet message said that committees represented by the traders of each area/ market, covering the whole country will be notified.

    “Traders and FBR will work together for registration,” the chairman said and termed it a new beginning for taxation history of Pakistan.

    The FBR and trade community were at odd on the implementation of some of initiatives for documentation of economy, especially the introduction of CNIC.

    However, on October 30, 2019 an agreement was signed between FBR and traders.

    Following is the 11-point agreement between the tax authorities and traders associations:

    01. The tax rate shall be lowered to 0.5 percent from 1.5 percent for traders having turnover up to Rs100 million.

    02. No liability on a trader having up to Rs100 million to collect / deposit withholding tax on transactions.

    03. Threshold of annual electricity bill of Rs600,000 for mandatory sales tax registration has been increased to Rs1.2 million.

    04. Turnover tax for sectors having lower returns will be revisted with consultation with traders associations.

    05. Tax issues of jewelers will be resolved in consultation with jewelers associations.

    06. The renewal license fees on middlemen will be revisited.

    07. To resolve traders taxation issues a desk at FBR headquarters will be set up with immediate effect. A BS-20/21 officer will be designated to resolve the traders’ problems.

    08. For new registration of traders a simple income tax return form in Urdu Language will be introduced. Trade associations will cooperation in FBR’s registration drive.

    09. Which trader will be exempted from registration having 1000 square feet shop will be decided by traders committees.

    10. The registration of those retailers engaged in wholesale business will be decided in consultation with traders community.

    11. The FBR will take no action on sales transactions without CNIC information till January 31, 2020.

  • Exporters perturb over part of tax refund claims disallowed without reason

    Exporters perturb over part of tax refund claims disallowed without reason

    KARACHI: Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA) on Friday pointed out reduction in refund amount against original claim.

    The PHMA in a letter sent to Ms. Seema Shakil, Member Inland Revenue (Operations), Federal Board Revenue (FBR), informed that it is regretfully informed that against the 100 percent claimed sales tax refunds amount, FBR has cleared 60 percent to 80 percent of 100 percent refund amount and the exporters are unaware why the FBR had withhold the remaining refund amount which has created unrest and spread dissatisfaction among our member exporters.

    With utmost concern we want to learn as to why 100 percent payment of Sales Tax Refund is not made and why some part payment has been deferred / withheld without informing any reason.

    Kindly look into this matter and inform us how to check the reason of withhold amount against sales tax refund claims in Annexure H under FASTER.

    Upon review of the outcome of the refund claims and feedback of our individual members through their professional team we have observed that rejection of the refund claim is largely attributed to the objection of “Risky” and “No amount is admissible for refund”.

    These objections by and large are issuing to refund claimants having a substantial amount of carried forward in their sales tax return and RMS particularly in the month of Jun 2019 but not appearing in RPO of the Jun 2019. You may appreciate in the past electronically rejected claims were processed by local RTO and subsequently RPO’s were generated with lapse of considerable time by processing officer.

    The carry forward amount in those RPOs are though appearing in RMS but due to skip of sequence the same were not incorporated in subsequent months electronic claims and therefore the carry forward amount in electronically issued RPO of Jun 2019 is not tallied with sales tax return or carried forward amount available in RMS.

    You are therefore requested to kindly look into the matter and issue the necessary instructions for incorporating verified carried forward amount appearing in RMS into FASTER and reprocess such refund claims which were rejected due to this technical constraint.

    Objections namely “Risky” and “No amount is admissible for refund” are not understandable, since all the Purchases are made from registered supplier & exporters for export purposes. Why would system not refund a Single Penny.

    Some of the exporters in the first month i.e. July 2019 has opted to carry forward the excess input tax. According to the refund rules the annex ‘H’ is only requires to be filed by person claiming refund.

    The question arises if the annex ‘H’ is not filed by the person opted for carry forward in accordance with the refund rules, how could their carried forward amount be transferred into the brought forward value of next month in the absence of this figure in their RPO of July 2019?

    How it is possible that one month claim is approved by the FASTER and the very next month claim is rejected by the FASTER without giving any reason. Therefore, FASTER should be equipped to define the reason of rejection. “Risky” and “No amount is admissible for refund.

    It has been observed the FASTER system runs once a month due to which large number of claims are rejected. It is proposed that FASTER system should run preferably once a week to avoid rejection of large number of claims.

    The time limit of 120 days for filing of Annex ‘H’ in this background is also needs to be extended. It is proposed to extended time limit for at-least another 60days for submission of Annex ‘H’ for the months of July, 2019 and August, 2019, so that genuine amount of refund claims due to this shift of regime and technical problems should not be lapsed.

  • Stock market gains 91 points amid selling pressure

    Stock market gains 91 points amid selling pressure

    KARACHI: The stock market gained 91 points on Friday amid selling pressure witnessed in the market.

    The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,732 points as against 40,641 points showing an increase of 91 points.

    Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note, closed the first session +176 points and went as high as +347 points.

    MoC faced selling pressure, bringing the index down and closing +91 points. Sectors performing E&P and O&GMCs.

    Selling pressure, on the other hand was largely witnessed in Banking sector, which have so far seen massive rally and faced profit booking.

    Cement sector also saw selling pressure. Cement sector led the volumes table with 84.8 million shares, followed by Vanaspati (53.5 million) and Technology (35.2 million).

    Among scrips, UNITY saw volumes of 53.5 million shares followed by FCCL (31.9 million) and MLCF (18.6 million).

    Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+64 points), Food (+30 points), Insurance (+21 points), Fertilizer (+23 points) and Chemical (+15 points).

    Volumes declined from 507.9 million shares to 416.1 million shares (-18 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 25 percent to reach US$ 97.7 million as against US$ 129.8 million.

    Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, FCCL, MLCF, FFL and MLCFR1, which formed 32 percent of total volumes.

    Stocks that contributed positively include PPL (+34 points), BAHL (+30 points), HUBC (+26 points), EFERT (+23 points) and OGDC (+23 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PSO (-27 points), HBL (-21 points), SEARL (-15 points), KAPCO (-14 points), and LUCK (-14 points).

  • Rupee gains for fourth consecutive day on improved inflows

    Rupee gains for fourth consecutive day on improved inflows

    KARACHI: The Pak Rupee made gain against dollar for the fourth consecutive day on Friday owing to improved inflows.

    The rupee ended Rs155.07 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs155.10 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    Currency experts said that the sentiments in the market were remained positive owing to news of inflows of 190 million UK Pounds and more expected from National Crime Agency of the UK.

    The foreign currency market was initiated in the range of Rs155.02 and Rs155.17. The market recorded day high of Rs155.08 and low of Rs155.06 and closed at Rs155.07.

    The rupee maintained a continuous gain after falling to Rs155.34 on December 02, 2019.

    The exchange rate in open market witnessed unchanged value in rupee. The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs154.80/Rs155.10, the same previous day’s closing, in cash ready market.

  • Asian Bank approves $1 billion to support Pakistan’s economy

    Asian Bank approves $1 billion to support Pakistan’s economy

    MANILA, PHILIPPINES: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday approved $1 billion in immediate budget support to Pakistan to shore up the country’s public finances and help strengthen a slowing economy, a statement said.

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  • Tax authorities to receive bulk information of bank account holders after disposal of court cases

    Tax authorities to receive bulk information of bank account holders after disposal of court cases

    KARACHI: Tax authorities will receive a huge bunch of financial transactions from banks after a court dispose of all the petitions that were restricting the tax authorities to obtain information.

    Sindh High Court on Thursday disposed of petitions by banks. The disposal of cases has now allowed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to obtain information of bank account holders making financial transactions in the undocumented economy.

    The disposal of petitions came after an agreement signed between FBR and Pakistan Banks Association (PBA) on November 27, 2019.

    The FBR sources said that the tax authorities would able to access the information of banking account holders. The FBR has been authorized to obtain information from banks under Section 165A of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

    This section was introduced through Finance Act, 2013. However the implementation of the section was remained subjudice before the courts for the last six years.

    The FBR sources said that the section was introduced to detect persons having taxable income but remained outside of the tax net. They said that the disposal of the cases by the higher court would give boost to the broadening of tax efforts of the FBR.

    The FBR will get following information under Section 165A:

    (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force including but not limited to the Banking Companies Ordinance, 1962 (LVII of 1962), the Protection of Economic Reforms Act, 1992 (XII of 1992), the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (VII of 1947) and the regulations made under the State Bank of Pakistan Act, 1956 (XXXIII of 1956), if any, on the subject every banking company shall make arrangements to provide to the Board in the prescribed form and manner,—

    (a) a list of persons containing particulars of cash withdrawals exceeding fifty thousand Rupees in a day and tax deductions thereon, aggregating to Rupees one million or more during each preceding calendar month.”;

    (b) a list containing particulars of deposits aggregating rupees ten million or more made during the preceding calendar month;

    (c) a list of payments made by any person against bills raised in respect of a credit card issued to that person, aggregating to rupees two hundred thousand or more during the preceding calendar month;

    “(d) a list of persons receiving profit on debt exceeding five hundred thousand rupees and tax deductions thereon during preceding financial year.”

    (2) Each banking company shall also make arrangements to nominate a senior officer at the head office to coordinate with the Board for provision of any information and documents in addition to those listed in sub-section (1), as may be required by the Board.

    (3) The banking companies and their officers shall not be liable to any civil, criminal or disciplinary proceedings against them for furnishing information required under this Ordinance.

    (5) Subject to section 216, all information received under this section shall be used only for tax purposes and kept confidential.

  • FBR to issue around Rs3 billion tax refunds in next couple of days: Hafeez Shaikh

    FBR to issue around Rs3 billion tax refunds in next couple of days: Hafeez Shaikh

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will issue another Rs2 to 3 billion tax refunds in next couple of days, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, said on Thursday in a meeting with leading businessmen.

    The adviser told the businessmen that FBR was working very hard to facilitate the exporters and another Rs 2 to 3 billion tax refunds would also be issued within the next couple of days.

    The meeting discussed and reviewed progress on the issues pertaining to payment of Sales Tax refunds to exporters.

    Adviser to Adviser Commerce Ali Habib, Chairman FBR Syed Shabbar Zaidi and Secretary Finance Naveed Kamran Baloch were also present in the meeting which was attended by leading exporters from Lahore and Karachi, including Shahid Soorty, Musaadiq Zulqarnain, Fawad Anwer, Shahid Abdullah, Bashir Ali Mohammad, Rizwan Dewan, Asif Tata, Ahmed Ibrahim, Sameer Chinoy and Khurram Mukhtar.

    During the proposals, various proposals were put forward from the businessmen and exporters and FBR was advised to work more aggressively on reforming and simplifying the processes through automation for early and prompt payment of sales tax refunds.

    He told the businessmen he had already constituted a committee comprising officials from FBR and members of APTMA to simplify the Form-H within the next few days to make it simpler and easy for the exporters claiming sales tax refunds.

    The businessmen were asked to nominate anyone they liked to become part of the Committee as he wanted to ensure a hassle-free submission of tax refund claims and their subsequent payment without any delay.

    The businessmen thanked the Adviser and his team in FBR for ensuring payment of Rs 32 billion sales tax refunds to the exporters in the last couple of days.

  • SECP, ADB organize consultation workshop on financial market development

    SECP, ADB organize consultation workshop on financial market development

    KARACHI: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) jointly organized a workshop for stakeholder consultations on Financial Market Development 2020-2025, a statement said on Thursday.

    The long term roadmap will be focusing on demand and supply measures to broaden and deepen the financial system in Pakistan.

    Senior level representatives from the ADB, State Bank of Pakistan, SECP and representatives of stock exchange, central depository, national clearing company and market participants attended the brainstorming session.

    In his welcoming remarks, SECP Chairman Aamir Khan affirmed that SECP’s foremost obligation remains towards building a regulatory environment that is sound, efficient and cost-effective.

    “Yet, I am equally passionate about ensuring that it is empowering for business growth. One must not be sacrificed at the cost of the other. We need to be fiercely vigilant in the pursuit of transparency, yet be tirelessly focused on reducing regulatory barriers and cost of doing business,” said the SECP Chairman.

    Regarding the projected roadmap, Khan opinioned that supporting multi-stage financing needs of start-ups and SMEs, increasing the number of retail investors, strengthening the role of institutional investors, creating an active bond market and promoting infrastructure-financing vehicles would be core constituents of the future roadmap.

    However, he emphasized, the roadmap must entail a broad and deep consensus between the SECP, and other relevant stakeholders in the public and private sectors.

    SECP Commissioner Securities Market, Shauzab Ali, gave his views on SECP’s approach to the reform plans already being undertaken by the regulator, challenges and opportunities.

    A team of international experts facilitated the workshop with a view to consolidate market feedback on the various on the supply and demand side constraints, along with recommendations for reform.

    ADB Deputy Country Director for Pakistan, Asif Cheema, stated that the proposed Financial Markets Development Program is in line with ADB’s Strategy 2030, which prioritizes the development of the financial sector and capital markets to support the development of the private sector and enhance financial stability.

    This program will build upon ADB’s earlier support for development of Pakistan’s capital markets over the past two decades.

    Cheema also reiterated the need for government ownership for implementation of the master plan.