Author: Mrs. Anjum Shahnawaz

  • Draft income tax return form for salaried persons for tax year 2019

    Draft income tax return form for salaried persons for tax year 2019

    KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued draft income tax return forms for salaried persons to be filed for tax year 2019.

    The last date for filing income tax return for salaried persons for tax year 2019 is September 30, 2019.

    The FBR issued the following draft return form for salaried individuals as issued through SRO 951(I)/2019 dated August 23, 2019. The tax authority will issue the final form after taking feedback from the stakeholders.

  • IR officers participate in ‘tax management system for Pakistan’ in China

    IR officers participate in ‘tax management system for Pakistan’ in China

    ISLAMABAD: A nine-member team of Inland Revenue (IR) officers is participating in tax system management for Pakistan starting from Monday (August 26, 2019) in China.

    Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday issued no objection certificate (NOC) to the officers to the proceeding abroad to participate in bilateral seminar 2019 (14 days) on Tax System Management for Pakistan’ starting from August 26, 2019 in China.

    The following officers are participating in the seminar:

    01. Muhammad Ayaz, Commissioner-IR, Regional Tax Office, Peshawar.

    02. Muhammad Tariq Arbab, Director, Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation, IR, Peshawar.

    03. Tariq Javed, Second Secretary, FBR, Islamabad.

    04. Abid Hussain Gulshan, Deputy Commissioner-IR, RTO, Multan.

    05. Muhammad Junaid Murtaza, Second Secretary, FBR, Islamabad.

    06. Ms. Saqiba Manan, Deputy Commissioner-IR, Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU)-II, Karachi.

    07. Syeda Lubna Shah, Assistant Commissioner-IR, RTO, Lahore.

    08. Ms. Shahida Nazir, Assistant Commissioner-IR, Corporate RTO, Karachi.

    09. Ms. Aqsa Ali, Assistant Commissioenr-IR-RTO-II, Karachi.

  • Stock market witnesses bearish sentiments

    Stock market witnesses bearish sentiments

    KARACHI: The stock market witnessed bearish sentiments on Monday after significant gains during the last week.

    The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 30,521 points as against 31,350 points showing a decline of 829 points.

    Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that start of the rollover week marked the return of pain for investors.

    Market ended the session at a bearish note with an intraday slide of 939 points.

    Selling pressure was observed across the board, with major pressure in E&P, Cement, Power and Steel sectors.

    Crude oil prices hinted a decline, which triggered the selling in E&P Stocks. LOTCHEM announced financial results today, and posted a hefty bottom line, resulting in largest volumes on the bourse with price gains, which were kept in check by overall slide in market.

    Prime Minister is also scheduled to address the nation in the evening, which also hinted a tough tone on Pakistan-India confrontation, although the major drive behind today’s sell-off appears more of a short-covering strategy by short sellers and should subside in the coming sessions.

    Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (-208 points), Banks (-142 points), Fertilizer (-118 points), Cement (-89 points) and O&GMCs (-64 points).

    Volumes declined significantly from 230.7 million shares to 122.1 million shares (-47 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 47 percent to reach US$ 24.1 million as against US$ 45.8 million.

    Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include LOTCHEM, BOP, MLCF, KEL and PAEL, which formed 36 percent of total volumes.

    Stocks that contributed positively include PAKT (+29 points), BAFL (+3 points), FATIMA (+2 points), GSKCH (+2 points) and LOTCHEM (+2 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (-84 points), PPL (-70 points), ENGRO (-68 points), LUCK (-48 points) and HUBC (-46 points).

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  • Rupee gains six paisas amid higher dollar demand

    Rupee gains six paisas amid higher dollar demand

    KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained six paisas against dollar on Monday amid demand for corporate and import payments.

    The rupee ended Rs157.36 to the dollar from last Friday’s closing of Rs157.42 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    Currency dealers said that the local unit was under pressure earlier in the day due to higher demand for dollar in the foreign currency market. They said that the greenback demand was high because market was opened after weekly holidays.

    The foreign currency market was initiated in the range of Rs157.60 and Rs157.70. The market recorded day high of Rs157.65 and low of Rs159.30 and closed at Rs157.36.

    The exchange rate in open market also witnessed appreciation in rupee value. The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs157.10/Rs159.60 from last Friday’s closing of Rs157.30/Rs157.80 in cash ready market.

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  • FBR revises additional customs duty on components for motor vehicles

    FBR revises additional customs duty on components for motor vehicles

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has revised additional customs duty on import of components for motor vehicles.

    The FBR issued SRO 936 (I)/2019 dated August 19, 2019 to amend the SRO 693(I)2006 dated July 01, 2006.

    The FBR amended Appendix-I of SRO 693(I)/2006 related to import of components for motor vehicles.

    As per SRO 693(I)/2006 the additional customs duty at 15 percent was imposed on goods classifiable under tariff headings of the First Schedule to the Customs Act, 1969, as specified in Appendix I to the notification.

    Download:

    SRO 936(I)/2019

    SRO 693(I)/2006

  • Total number of SECP registered companies increases to 102,864

    Total number of SECP registered companies increases to 102,864

    ISLAMABAD: The total number of registered companies with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has increased to 102,864 by end of July 2019, said a statement on Saturday.

    The SECP said that in July it registered 1,525 new companies. As compared to the corresponding month of last financial year, it represents a growth of 41 percent raising the number of total registered companies to 1,02,864.

    The massive increase is the result of series of recent reform measures undertaken by the SECP.

    Around 71 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 25 percent were registered as single member companies.

    Four percent were registered as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, foreign companies and Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) whereas 96 percent of these companies were registered by using online facility including applications received from overseas subscribers through eService and around 49 percent of these companies were registered on same day.

    The SECP has also upgraded its browser’s compatibility and now in addition to Internet Explorer, other browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, Safari and Opera can be used for name reservation and company incorporation process.

    The trading sector took the lead and 266 new companies are registered in this sector, construction with 186, Information Technology with 183, Services sector with 177, Tourism with 69, Real Estate Development with 59, Food and Beverages with 56, Engineering with 44, Education with 43, Marketing and Advertisement with 40, Textile with 39, Corporate Agricultural Farming with 36, Pharmaceutical with 30, Healthcare with 29, Transport with 28, Chemical with 27, Mining and quarrying with 24, Communication with 21, Auto and Allied with 18, Fuel and Energy with 16, Logging with 14, Broadcasting and Telecasting with 12, Paper & Board, and Power Generation with 11 each and 86 companies were registered in other sectors.

    Foreign investment has been reported in 58 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Korea South, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sweden,, Turkey, the UAE the UK and the US.

    The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 603 were registered in Company Registration Office-Islamabad, followed by 378 and 283 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively.

    The Company Registration Offices in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta, and Sukkur registered, 100, 76, 41, 27, 10 and 7 companies, respectively.

  • FBR issues broadening of tax base jurisdictions for Karachi

    FBR issues broadening of tax base jurisdictions for Karachi

    KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has divided territorial jurisdictions of tax offices in order to identify potential taxpayers in Karachi city – the commercial hub of the country, FBR officials said on August 24, 2019.

    The FBR empowered Regional Tax Office (RTO) II and RTO III to identify persons having taxable income but not registered with tax authorities.

    According to revised jurisdiction of commissioners of broadening of tax base (BTB) the RTO-II Karachi will exercise powers over civil districts of Karachi Division of Sindh Province, within the limits of areas, included: Saddar Town, Lyari Town, Jamshed Town, Liaquatabad, SITE, Baldia, Orangi, DHA, Clifton, Kemari Town, Clifton Cantt, Kemari Cantt and Manora Cantt.

    The FBR created a new BTB unit at RTO-III Karachi empowering over all cases of persons who are not registered under the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, who:

    (a) are carrying on business within the territorial jurisdiction of following areas of Karachi Division of Sindh Province:

    Gulberg Town

    Gadap Town

    New Karachi

    North Nazimabad

    New Nazimabad

    Korangi Cantonment

    Gulshan-e-Iqbal

    Gulsitan-e-Johar

    Shah Faisal Town

    Malir Town

    Faisal Cantonment

    Malir Cantonment

    Bin Qasim

    Landhi,

    In respect of any other person who reside within the territorial jurisdiction of areas specified at para (a) above;

    Who have been issued notices under sub-section (2) of Section 181 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, by the commissioner or his sub-ordinate officers.

  • High tax rates to discourage industrialization: KCCI

    High tax rates to discourage industrialization: KCCI

    KARACHI: Raising the tax rate is not the right solution for enhancing revenue as it will discourage expansion and industrialization but the actual solution lies in broadening the tax net, Junaid Makda, President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said in a statement on Saturday.

    The broadening of the tax base will subsequently share the burden and bring down the tax rates that would surely encourage the business & industrial community to go for expansion, Junaid Makda said, adding that it would in turn result in maximum production, excellent sales, enhanced revenue collection, massive number of employment opportunities, poverty alleviation and long term economic prosperity.

    Makda, while appreciating the good intent of Prime Minister Imran Khan to improve the revenue collection, was, however, skeptical as the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), which is responsible to implement the policies for enhancing revenue from all over the country, has kept its revenue collection activities confined to Karachi only whereas the rest of Pakistan stands exempted from all these policies as perceived.

    Junaid Makda said that FBR wants to achieve the revenue target by further squeezing the existing taxpayers of Karachi which was already contributing a mammoth sum of more than 70 percent revenue to the national exchequer whereas no such activity was visible in any other city or province of the country.

    “We are not against the actions being taken to strictly deal with tax evaders from Karachi who must also be brought into the tax net along with tax evaders from other areas of the country but the loyal taxpayers should not be harassed and overburdened with exorbitant taxes,” he added while underscoring the need to strictly implement policies in every single nook and corner of the country.

    He said that the cost of doing business was already too high due to import/ regulatory duties, upsurge in dollar rate and exorbitant taxes etc. while many industries were finding it hard to continue their activities and even those industries, which were somehow surviving, have no other option but to pass on the burden to consumers that has resulted in across-the-board inflation.

    He stressed that the government will have to follow the supply side of economics where more revenue is generated through growth, wherein taxes are reduced along with consumer prices that would lead to quantum growth and appreciation in net revenue as well.

    Increase in taxes reverses the growth and it would start declining, ultimately reduce the revenue already being achieved and above all high taxes are incentive for evasion, he added.

    President KCCI requested the Prime Minister Imran Khan to issue directives for broadening the tax base and implementing the relevant policies all over the country in letter and spirit which would certainly yield positive results.

    He reaffirmed that exorbitant tax rates along with cumbersome procedures and frequent issuance of anti-business and anti-taxpayers SROs/ notifications would result in closure of massive number of industrial units, significantly dent government’s revenue and render hundreds of thousands jobless.

    “We understand that the country is in dire need of additional revenue but one should realize that revenue must come from new sources and even if it is taken from old sources, it needs to be rationalized and kept at the lowest level in order to attract thousands of individuals, who prefer to stay away from the tax net keeping in view the hardships being faced by loyal taxpayers”, Junaid Makda said, adding that heavy taxation has been imposed across the board and this additional burden has terribly affected the businesses and growth, which is already in a declining mode and may suffer more in the days to come.

  • Weekly Review: foreign interest to revive amid improving external account balance

    Weekly Review: foreign interest to revive amid improving external account balance

    KARACHI: The stock market may slow down during next week but overall sentiments would remain positive, analysts said.

    Analysts at Arif Habib Limited expect that the market momentum to slow down amid profit-taking.

    “The overall sentiment to remain positive with investors continuing to accumulate scrips at current attractive valuations,” they added.

    Further, foreign interest is likely to revive amid improving external account balance and strengthening foreign exchange reserves.

    The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) sharply bounced back this week with a positive weekly return after a long six-week bloodbath.

    Participation in the index also increased with volumes witnessing a drastic surge compared to recent trends.

    The index closed at 31,350 points, rising 2585 points WoW (9 percent WoW) which is the highest weekly return ever in terms of points.

    The stellar inflection of the index was long over-due with valuations nose-diving to dirt cheap levels.

    Moreover, improving trend of the external account balance further rejuvenated sentiment, with the Current Account Deficit declining 73 percent YoY/37 percent MoM during July 2019 (USD 579 million).

    The latest PIB auction saw raising of Rs434 billion against a target of Rs100 billion with cut-off yields declining by 25 bps and 40 bps for the 5-Yr and 10-Yr PIBs respectively, indicating that the markets see interest rates to have peaked.

    Reduction in the cut-off yields is likely to have a positive bearing on equity valuations.

    That said, the last trading session saw a decline of 534 points primarily attributable to profit-taking.

    Sector-wise positive contributions were led by i) Commercial Banks (744 points) ii) Oil & Gas Exploration Companies (469 points), iii) Fertilizer (319 points), Cement (235 points), and v) Power Generation & Distribution (216 points).

    Scrip-wise positive contributions came from ENGRO (256 points), OGDC (205 points), HBL (188 points), HUBC (160 points) and MCB (147 points).

    Foreign selling was witnessed this week clocking-in at USD 4.97 million compared to a net buy of USD 1.70 million last week.

    Selling was witnessed in Exploration & Production (USD 6.0 million) and fertilizer (USD 0.8 million). On the domestic front, major buying was reported by Individual (USD 6.5 million) and Broker Proprietary Trading (USD 3.8 million).

    Average Volumes settled at 174 million shares (up by 135 percent WoW) while average value traded clocked-in at USD 38 million (up by 83 percent WoW).

  • FBR asks BS-17 officers to complete PERs for promotion

    FBR asks BS-17 officers to complete PERs for promotion

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has advised all the officers of BS-17, who are in promotion zone, to submit their performance evaluation reports (PERs) up to September 10, 2019 for the consideration in the upcoming departmental promotion committee (DPC).

    A circular issued by the FBR said that the meeting of DPC for promotion from BS-17 to BS-18 being convened shortly.

    All BS-17 officers of Inland Revenue Service / Pakistan Customs Service and Ex-Cadre, who are in promotion zone, have been asked to get complete their PERs up to June 30, 2019 by September 10, 2019.