KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is set to launch survey in existing and new shopping markets in Karachi for identifying tax evaders.
(more…)Author: Faisal Shahnawaz
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Income Tax Ordinance 2001: Tax officials’ power to enter premises without notice
KARACHI: Tax officials have immense powers to enter any premises for the purpose of audit of a taxpayer or survey of a potential taxpayer.
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SRB suspends sales tax registration of Multinet Pakistan
KARACHI: Sindh Board of Revenue (SRB) has suspended sales tax registration of an IT service provider for failure in timely payment of provincial government dues and filing sales tax return.
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SRB issues list of 1,289 non-filer customs agents
KARACHI: In a bid to reinforce tax compliance and streamline revenue collection, the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) has taken decisive action against customs clearing agents who have repeatedly failed to fulfill their monthly return filing obligations.
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Procedure for obtaining sales tax registration
KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has introduced a streamlined procedure for sales tax registration, aiming to facilitate taxpayers engaged in making taxable supplies in Pakistan.
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Weekly Review: equity market to rebound on improved economic indicators
KARACHI: The equity market is expected to rebound next week after tracking negative leads in the past three weeks, analysts said.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark index to witness a rebound given improvement in economy as current account deficit has narrowed by 17 percent to USD 8.4 billion coupled with tension between Pakistan and India cooling off and materialization of Saudi deal which will improve the investment climate.
On the other hand, rising international oil prices and expected result announcement of INDU, DGKC, NML, ASTL, PPL, SEARL and BOP may keep these scrips under limelight.
This week trading commenced on a negative note despite historic visit of the Saudi Crown Prince where both the governments signed an investment deal worth $ 21 billion.
The analysts believed market activity remained sluggish and the index hovered sideways on the back of i) tension between Pakistan and neighboring country India post Pulwama terrorist attack which led to the imposition of 200 percent regulatory duty on Pakistani exports; this triggered a selling pressure in cement scrips, ii) Lower than expected results of heavy weight scrips (UBL, HBL, HUBC and KAPCO), and iii) ongoing meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to review Pakistan’s status.
As a result, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 40,016 points, down by 471 points or 1.16 percent WoW.
Contribution to the downside was led by i) Power Generation and Distribution (-142 points) due to absence of dividend in their recent result announcement, ii) Commercial Banks (-139 points) amid lower than expected results, iii) Pharmaceuticals (-35 points), iv) Transport (-27 points), and v) Tobacco (-26 points).
Scrip wise major losers were UBL (-120 points), HBL (-115 points), HUBC (-68 points), KAPCO (-56 points) and SNGP (-37 points). While, the only sector that contributed positively to the index was Oil and Gas Exploration Companies (+85 points) due to surge in international oil prices.
Foreign buying continued this week clocking-in at USD 3.5 million compared to a net buy of USD 12.1 million last week. Major buying was witnessed in Cements (USD 3.3 million) and Commercial Banks (USD 1.4 million).
On the local front, selling was reported by Individuals (USD 4.7 million) followed by Companies (USD 1.0 million).
That said, average daily volumes for the outgoing week were down by 22 percent to 105 million shares likewise value traded decline by 14 percent to USD 39 million.
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Income Tax Ordinance 2001: Taxpayers require to keep 6-year tax record for audit
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has recently introduced amendments to the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, emphasizing the importance of maintaining accurate records by taxpayers.
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Customs recovers huge quantity of drugs, smuggled goods
KARACHI: Customs authorities in Karachi conducted two major operations on Friday, resulting in the recovery of a significant quantity of contraband and smuggled goods.
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NBP’s annual profit falls by 13pc on massive provisioning, write-offs
KARACHI: The net annual profit of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has declined by 13 percent owing to sharp increase in provisioning and write-offs.
The net profit of the bank was at Rs20 billion in 2018 as compared with Rs23 billion in the previous year.
In its financial results submitted to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, the bank declared earnings per share at Rs9.41 as compared with previous year’s EPS at Rs10.82.
The net mark-up income and interest income of the bank had been increased to Rs60.66 billion in the year 2018 as compared with Rs54.25 billion in a year ago.
Meanwhile, non-mark up income and interest income of the bank was at Rs36.248 billion for the year under review as compared with Rs31.065 billion a year ago.
The cost of provisioning and write-offs increased massively to Rs11.3 billion as compared with Rs1.19 billion.
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FATF advises Pakistan to continue on action plan implementation
ISLAMABAD: Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in its plenary meeting on Friday advised Pakistan to continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies.
The meetings of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) took place at OECD, Paris from February 17-22, 2019 to review the compliance of a number of countries with the international standards on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT).
Pakistan was earlier placed by FATF in its Ongoing Compliance Document in view of an Action Plan undertaken by it to strengthen its CFT Regime.
The FATF reviewed the progress made by Pakistani authorities concerned with CFT role, based upon an analysis carried out by Asia-Pacific Joint Group.
The FATF noted that Pakistan took several steps to implement the Action Plan including by undertaking Risk Assessment of Terrorism Financing and Cash Smuggling in the country.
The FATF advised Pakistan for continue work on action plan, included:
(1) adequately demonstrating its proper understanding of the TF risks posed by the terrorist groups above, and conducting supervision on a risk-sensitive basis;(2) demonstrating that remedial actions and sanctions are applied in cases of AML/CFT violations, and that these actions have an effect on AML/CFT compliance by financial institutions;
(3) demonstrating that competent authorities are cooperating and taking action to identify and take enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services (MVTS);
(4) demonstrating that authorities are identifying cash couriers and enforcing controls on illicit movement of currency and understanding the risk of cash couriers being used for TF;
(5) improving inter-agency coordination including between provincial and federal authorities on combating TF risks;
(6) demonstrating that law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are identifying and investigating the widest range of TF activity and that TF investigations and prosecutions target designated persons and entities, and persons and entities acting on behalf or at the direction of the designated persons or entities;
(7) demonstrating that TF prosecutions result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions and enhancing the capacity and support for prosecutors and the judiciary; and
(8) demonstrating effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions (supported by a comprehensive legal obligation) against all 1267 and 1373 designated terrorists and those acting for or on their behalf, including preventing the raising and moving of funds, identifying and freezing assets (movable and immovable), and prohibiting access to funds and financial services;
(9) demonstrating enforcement against TFS violations including administrative and criminal penalties and provincial and federal authorities cooperating on enforcement cases;
(10) demonstrating that facilities and services owned or controlled by designated person are deprived of their resources and the usage of the resources.
The FATF urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019.