KARACHI: The World Trade Organization (WTO) has observed that trade restrictions have increased to historic high levels. The Director-General’s annual overview of trade-related developments discussed on 12 December at a meeting of the Trade Policy Review Body shows that trade restrictions by WTO members continue at historically high levels.
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FBR allows filing Annexure H for July 2019 to claim sales tax refund
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has allowed filing of statement containing stock position for July 2019 to taxpayers for claiming sales tax refunds.
In an official memorandum issued on Thursday, the FBR condoned the time limit for filing of Annexure – H for the tax period July 2019 up to January 15, 2020.
Annexure-H is a statement for providing stock position by taxpayers along with monthly sales tax return.
The FBR from July 01, 2019 introduced expeditious payment of sales tax refunds within 72 hours subject to the true filing of Annexure – H.
Recently, Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) highlighted this issue and urged the tax authorities to resolve for facilitating exporters and manufacturers.
The KTBA pointed out that as per the amendments made in Sales Tax Rules, 2006 vide SRO no. 918(I)/2019 dated August 7, 2019, mechanism for expeditious processing of refund claim has been devised only for manufacturers-cum- exporters.
As per the Rules, refund will be treated as having been filed only after filing of Annexure H of the Sales Tax return, for which deadline of 120 days has been prescribed in the Rules and the same can be extended for a period of 60 days on the basis of approval from the Commissioner.
However, the rules are silent about the mechanism for processing of Sales Tax refunds incase Annexure H has not been filed by manufacturer-cum-exporter for any reason. Considering the legal and legitimate right of the taxpayer to claim adjustment / refund of the input tax, either of the following two option be considered by the FBR for facilitation of exporters:
Allow filing of Annexure H without any time limit [present time limit of 4 months be abolished and taxpayer be allowed to claim refund as and when required] ii. Incase present limit of 4 months cannot be abolished, registered persons be allowed atleast to alternatively file refund on annual basis after the end of the tax year.
Apart from the above, Annexure H is only being allowed to be filed to taxpayers who have filed the said Annexure from sales tax returns of July 2019 and onwards. Instead of claiming refund, some taxpayers have reported sales tax carried forward balance in their sales tax returns from July 2019 onwards. In case they now intend to file Annexure H from the current month,
FBR’s online portal does not allow such taxpayers to enter opening balance of inventory / raw materials as the said field in blocked for editing. This limitation should be removed and taxpayers should be allowed to file Annexure H for any specific month, for which they intend to claim refund. From apparent mechanism being followed by the system, it appears that those taxpayers who have not filed Annexure H for the month of July 2019 will never be allowed to file Annexure H for any subsequent month. This apparent anomaly should be resolved at earliest.
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Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves increase despite $1bn Sukuk repayment
KARACHI: The foreign exchange reserves of the country have increased by $55 million by the week ended December 06, 2019 despite repayment of $1 billion against International Sukuk.
The foreign exchange reserves of the country increased by $55 million to $16.048 billion by week ended December 06, 2019 as compared with $15.993 billion a week ago, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.
During the week ending December 06, 2019, SBP made a repayment of Pakistan International Sukuk of $1,000 million.
After accounting for multilateral and other official inflows during the week, SBP reserves increased by US$121 million to US$9.233 billion. The SBP’s foreign exchange reserves were $9.113 billion a week ago.
The SBP said that on 09-December-2019 it received US$1.3 billion from Asian Development Bank. These funds will be part of the SBP weekly reserves data as of 13-December-2019, to be released on 19-December-2019.
The reserves held by commercial bank decline by $65.8 million to $6.814 billion by week ended December 06, 2019 as compared with $6.88 billion a week ago.
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Telenor Microfinance Bank signs pact for promotion of financial literacy in women
Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB) and Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal have signed an agreement aimed at empowering women through financial literacy training, a statement said on Thursday. This collaboration seeks to educate women across Pakistan on managing financial transactions and accessing credit services through both digital and conventional channels.
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Stock market ends flat amid selling pressure
KARACHI: The stock market witnessed a marginal decline of 17 points on Thursday despite selling pressures during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,514 points as against 40,531 points showing decline of 17 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded no different than what it has been since the beginning of the week.
The index oscillated between -359 points and +238 points during the session and closing at -17 points. Selling pressure remained there, which was primarily been due to profit taking by investors. Yesterday’s decline in PIB yields failed to prop up the index.
None of the listed sectors remained unscathed but the selling pressure was most witnessed in Cement sector.
Going with the recent trend, Vansapati sector led the trading volumes with 37.7 million shares, followed by Technology (27.2 million) and Cement (23.1 million). Among scrips, UNITY led the table with 37.7 million shares followed by TRG (12.9 million) and FFL (10.9 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+53 points), Tobacco (+32 points), Inv Banks (+27 points), Chemical (+13 points), O&GMCs (-26 points), Banks (-25 points), Cement (-21 points).
Volumes declined from 305.1 million shares to 227 million shares (-26 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 22 percent to reach US$ 54.3 million as against US$ 70 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, TRG, FFL, BOP and KEL, which formed 35 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include PAKT (+35 points), PPL (+24 points), DAWH (+20 points), OGDC (+20 points) and COLG (+13 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include BAHL (-24 points), SNGP (-16 points), HUBC (-14 points), TRG (-12 points), and SEARL (-12 points).
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Rupee eases against dollar in narrow band trading
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee eased against dollar on Thursday in narrow band trading and lackluster demand from importers.
The rupee ended Rs154.99 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs154.98 in interbank bank foreign exchange market.
Currency experts said that the importers were cautious in buying the greenback on the hopes that the value of the local unit would increase in coming days.
The foreign currency market was initiated in the range of Rs155.00 and Rs155.03. The market recorded day high of Rs155.01 and low of Rs154.98 and closed at Rs154.99.
The exchange rate in open market was remained unchanged. The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs154.40/Rs154.70, the same previous day’s level, in cash ready market.
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EOBI pension increased by 30 percent from January 01
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to increase pension amount by 30 percent from January 01, 2019, special assistant to prime minister said on Thursday.
“New year is heralding big news for the pensioners of Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) as the government has decided to raise their annuity by 30 per cent from January 1,2020,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari said while addressing Ciniplex and Commercial Complex’ inaguration ceremony on Thursday.
He said that after increase in the EOBI pensioners would receive Rs 8,500 per month from January, 1 next year.
He said the ministry would move the summary regarding the increase at the next meeting of federal cabinet for a final approval.
The SAPM said the PTI government, in its efforts to give more relief to the pensioners, had twice increased their annuity in just one and half year’s tenure.
He said the government had already enhanced the minimum pension of the EOBI’s insured person from Rs 5,250 to Rs 6,500 during 2018.
The EOBI pension has been enhanced by 62 per cent since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government came into power.
“We are intending to raise this amount up to Rs 15,000 by the end of our tenure (2023),” Zulfikar Bukhari said.
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Irrecoverable loans to be allowed tax concession
KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) shall allow reduction in tax liability against bed debts where loans are irrecoverable, officials said.
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SBP relaxes condition on advance payment against imports
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday amended instructions regarding advance payment against imports in order to facilitate manufacturers.
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FBR deploys IR officers at 20 sugar mills for monitoring of production, supplies
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has deployed officers of Inland Revenue at 20 sugar mills to monitor production and supply for checking tax evasion.
The IR officers have been deployed at the premises of sugar mills under Section 40B of Sales Tax Act, 1990 for the monitoring of stock, production and supply.
Sources told PkRevenue.com that Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi had requested the FBR to allow monitoring of sugar mills as huge tax evasion was detected in the past.
Recently, the FBR conducted analysis of sugar production of the last year which revealed huge tax evasion by sugar mills.
The outcome of analysis showed that FBR and the Cane Commissioner of three provinces had a difference of 641,000 metric tons which showed that the sugar mills were under reporting their stock in order to evade tax payments.
It is also identified that the local supplies during the tax period of July 2019 fell by 255 percent due to enhancement in tax rate from eight percent in June 2019 to 17 percent in July 2019.
The analysis further revealed that the stock holding last year ending June 2018 was 3,147,000 metric tons where as closing stock of the year ending on June 2019 was only 2,230,778 metric tons, which showed 29 percent decline.
It is also pointed out that sugar manufacturers had declared high quantity of supplies during June 2019 to evade sales tax as the tax rate was to increase in July 2019.
The FBR analysis revealed that the sugarcane was the biggest raw material of sugar industry.
The undocumented/under-documented nature of this agriculture sector poses a great challenge to accurately gauge the quantity of sugarcane produced and supplied to a particular mill.
Considering the above facts the FBR allowed deployment of IR officers at the sugar mills.
It is worth mentioning that the FBR Chairman through an official memorandum barred the tax offices for invoking Section 40B of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 without prior permission of the board or Member IR Operations.
Following is the list of sugar mills where IR officers have been deployed:
01. M/s. Darya Khan Sugar Mills Limited.
02. M/s. Popular Sugar Mills Limited.
03. M/s. Deharki Sugar Mill Limited.
04. M/s. Adam Sugar Mill Limited.
05. M/s. Baba Farid Sugar Mill Limited.
06. M/s. Digri Sugar Mill Limited.
07. M/s. Mirpurkhas Sugar Mill Limited.
08. M/s. Faran Sugar Mills Limited.
09. M/s. Mehran Sugar Mills Limited.
10. M/s. Dewan Sugar Mills Limited.
11. M/s. Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Limited.
12. M/s. Ansari Sugar Mills Limited.
13. M/s. Bawany Sugar Mills Limited.
14. M/s. Larr Sugar Mills Limited.
15. M/s. New Dadu Sugar Mills Limited.
16. M/s. Rani Sugar Mills (Pvt) Limited
17. M/s. Al-Noor Sugar Mills Limited
18. M/s. Tando Allahyar Sugar Mills Limited
19. M/s. Habib Sugar Mills Limited
20. M/s. Sindabadgar Sugar Mills Limited