LAHORE - Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the country Saturday through a Joint Declaration reiterated the significance of industry and trade and supported measures taken by the government to revive the national economy. The Chambers also lauded the government’s efforts on Ease of Doing Business.

LCCI President Almas Hyder presided over the meeting of the Chambers while Senior Vice President Khawaja Shahzad Nasir, Vice President Faheem-ur-Rehman Saigal, Presidents of Chambers spoke on the occasion and gave thought provoking workable proposals for upcoming budget.

All the participants were of the view custom duties on all raw materials should be zero or low. Government must eliminate Regulatory Duties and Additional Custom Duty on raw materials so that local industry can be able to compete with the smuggling and mitigate the effect of low tariff Free Trade Agreements. They said that rate of duties for trade and industry must be same so that SMEs who procure from trade, should have a level playing field. Custom duties on intermediary products should be reduced so that our industry can be able to import quality materials, components and machinery from the rest of the world.

They said that nonpayment of refunds is drying out liquidity from the market. Payment through promissory notes should also be extended to all sectors including five zero rated sectors. Refunds should be issued automatically without application, or pre-audit, within 60 days as per rules.

Markup rate should be reduced as it has made borrowing expensive. They said that benefit of tax holiday should not just be for new projects but also for expansions. Provincial governments should re-zone areas in and around urban centers, both for industrial and commercial use to help entrepreneurs invest in green field and other projects. Foreign investment should only be allowed as a joint venture or as a public listed company so that local investors also benefit.

The participants said that company office should be formed for registration of new companies. Registering a company should be separated from regulating a company.

They said that there should be one tax collection authority for the collecting of both federal and provincial taxes. Total number of taxes should be reduced to five by clubbing, frequency of tax payments should be reduced and steps should be taken to separate tax collection from service provision.

They said that audits should be risk-based with one month prior notice rather than random audits. There should be holiday for all taxes and levies for three years for the newly registered companies, especially for SMEs. They said that exemption from the payment of sales tax on imported plant and machinery for greenfield projects should also be granted to brownfield projects. No exemption should be given on imports, if the equipment, machine or part is locally manufactured. Fixed tax system should be introduced at the SME level to enhance the tax base.