KARACHI - All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Muhammad Yasin Siddik has shown concern over the government’s plans to increase sales tax rate on textile industry from the current 2 percent to 5 percent in the first phase and 17 percent in the next three years.
In a statement Chairman, APTMA said that the anticipated rise in textile exports through the relief obtained under GSP Plus Scheme granted by European Union would not be possible as there would be a liquidity crunch at a time when government is the largest borrower from the banking system.
Yasin said that in case the sales tax is raised to 5pc, a massive amount of about Rs74 billion of textile exporters would get stuck-up with FBR (expected exports for the current fiscal year are estimated at $14 billion as the exports for the first half of the year was $6.95 billion without GSP Plus Status) which he believes is beyond the capacity of FBR to process and refund without any delay.
The Chairman APTMA appealed to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister to take cognizance of the situation and before taking any decision give an opportunity to stakeholders to be heard.