LAHORE-Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PCMEA) Vice Chairman Usman Ashraf said that they have met with the top officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and informed them about the differential taxes imposed on partially finished raw materials imported through Afghanistan and other issues.
He said the problems related to the State Bank are also the same, so there is a demand from the government that these problems should also be solved without delay for the inevitable increase in exports for the country. He expressed these views while addressing the meeting called in the office of the association. On this occasion, Senior Central Leader Abdul Latif Malik, Chairman of Carpet Training Institute Ijazur Rehman, Senior Member Riyaz Ahmed, Pervaiz Hanif, Saeed Khan, Major (retd) Akhtar Nazir, Shahid Hasan, Kamran Razi, Umeer Usman and others were also present. Usman Ashraf told the participants of the meeting that a three-member delegation comprising senior members Abdul Latif Malik and Riyaz Ahmed under his leadership called on three-member officials including Member Customer Policy and Chief Sales Tax Policy of FBR and informed them of their demands.. “We have also sent our reports in writing to the chairman FBR,” he maintained.
He said that the FBR officials have been told that the handloom carpet industry is a cottage industry spread over different places and partially finished raw materials for this industry are procured from Afghanistan through Torkham border and after final preparation in Pakistan, it is 100 percent exported. “The FBR officials have been informed that in the previous federal budget, the registered exporters were exempted from customs duties and we request that commercial importers like registered exporters be included in tax and customs duty exemption relief in the upcoming budget and collection of sales tax will not be affected by this relief to commercial importers,” he added. He said that this initiative will not only strengthen the hand-woven carpets industry but also increase the volume of valuable foreign exchange which the country is in dire need of at this time. He said that the government is requested to play its role in resolving the complaints related to the State Bank, which will inevitably have a positive impact on our exports. “External payments are delayed due to various reasons including delay in correspondence between banks but it is being deducted by State Bank in the form of penalty due to which the exporters are facing serious problem. The government is requested to intervene in this and return the circular of deduction due to delay,” he concluded.