The standard Sales Tax rate be reduced to 13pc in V.A.T. mode to align it with Sindh Sales Tax on Services and thereafter reduce it gradually at 1pc annually

Registered persons are required to retain and maintain a plethora of records under section 22 up till 6 years. This should be curtailed to 3 years

Sales Tax at 10pc imposed on import of all machineries be exempted or reduced to 0 pc.

Arrangement be made to refund all the outstanding pending claims and a clear cut road map be issued for this purpose

The retail price of imported good should be mentioned on the product and GST be levied on the basis of retail prices

The maximum rate of income tax at 30pc on Companies should be brought down to 25pc and 20pc on small companies.

Service provider companies should be exempted from minimum tax regime or minimum tax for all services providers to be fixed at 2pc on their turnover

In line with constitutional requirement, all the adjudicating officers be brought under the administrative control of the Federal Ministry of Law.

The current tax at 12.5pc on Bonus Shares be withdrawn or alternatively, be rationalised by imposing tax at 10pc on the face value of shares.

Upto June 2017, every manufacturer registered under Sales Tax Act, 1990 was entitled to tax credit of 3pc of tax payable. This should be enhanced to atleast 5pc

Tax at 5pc and 7.5pc should be collected from industrial and commercial consumers of natural gas.

A flat rate of tax collection at 5pc and 7.5pc may be fixed for commercial and industrial consumers of electricity respectively.

In order to encourage SME Companies, the rate of tax for such companies should be reduced to 20pc.

Super Tax should be done away with.

Discretionary powers given to the tax officials to enter & search the taxpayers’ premises be withdrawn

Five exporting sectors zero rated by FBR shoukd also be zero rated from different tariff equalisation surcharges of worth Rs. 3.63/kWh.

Electricity tariff be reduced from Rs. 11/kWh to Rs. 7/kWh.

Gas price should be uniform throughout the country at Rs.600/mmBTU inclusive of GIDC. Differential for gas price for exporting industry needs to be met from budgetary support.

Government should immediately allocate funds for the payment of duty drawback to claimants against exports for immediate disbursement.

Instead of introducing intervention for cotton in Free Market Mechanism, government should reduce input cost of farmers and increase their cotton output by providing quality seed and extension of services at regionally competitive prices. No custom duty and sales tax be imposed during any time of the year.

7pc customs duty on polyester staple fibre imports and 5pc on coal imports should be abolished.

The 1.25pc Turnover Tax should be zero per cent for the textile sector.

In order to align with best international practices, the upper cap of corporate tax should be fixed at 25pc.

Impositions of 15pc regulatory duty on the import of synthetic yarns

Further tax at the rate of one per cent to zero rated supplies be withdrawn by deleting the condition (xiv) of SRO 1125(I)/2011.

The government announced zero rating of fuel through amendment in SRO. The availing of facility should be through e-portal on the pattern of electronic processing of refunds since 2010.

The following should be considered to attract new investment:

a. Provide a long-term policy for attracting investment in clothing and made-ups of the value chain of the Textile Industry;

b. LTF facility be also allowed for building of infrastructure for garment plants.

Taxation should be on the basis of income. Full and Final Tax regime should be discontinued and withholding tax deducted at source should be treated as advance tax.

Tax free remittances under section 111(4) should be restricted to $24,000 a year per account. Any additional remittance should be taxed at the normal tax rate.

Mining of FBR’s database to identify new taxpayers and those not fully discharging their liabilities.

Withholding tax rate on non-filers should be at least 3 times higher than that charged on filers.

Custom duty of 3pc on imports of plants and machinery should be abolished

Custom duty of 5pc and 6pc on coal and pet coke should be reduced to zero per cent.

“Scanners” should be introduced at Pak-Afghan (Turkham and Chaman) to reduce misuse of Afghan Transit Trade

An industry whose output is exempt from sales tax should be allowed zero rating for its inputs.

Imposition of 7.5pc tax on accounting profits of public companies that do not distribute 40pc of profits each year.

Up to 100pc offset against worker’s welfare fund

1pc lower tax rate for existing companies that create 50 or more new jobs on their own payroll in a year

Initial depreciation allowance on plant and machinery be restored to 50pc from 25pc (Finance Act 2014)

Initial depreciation allowance for buildings be restored to 25pc from 15pc 0.5pc lower tax rate for overall reduction in waste and achieving and maintaining zero landfill Values at which import shipments are cleared through PRAL or CARE need to be publicly available to reduce under invoicing. Depending on the industry the import values should be fixed.

For items prone to under-invoicing or misdeclaration FBR should designate one or two ports for clearing of imports consignments. Rate of tax collected from commercial importers be increased by at least 2pc.

Super Tax at 3 to 4pc, imposed in the Finance Act 2015-16, should be deleted.

The effective Corporate Income tax rate should be 25pc, w.e.f fiscal year 2018-19.

All Sales Tax rates of the different jurisdictions within the country should be reduced to 13pc.

The amendments made in Finance Act 2017 in respect of tax on undistributed profits, should be revoked.

Regulatory duty levied during the year, be withdrawn on imports of raw materials which are not being produced locally.

The following measures for attracting large new foreign direct investments should be introduced:

a. The tax credit rate should be enhanced from existing 10pc to 15pc of the amount of investment.

b. Industrial undertakings should be allowed to import raw material in the first year of production, without payment of advance tax and for subsequent years, be allowed exemption against advance tax on import of raw material, as per actual requirement.

c. Tax credit for employment generation, currently restricted to manufacturers, should also be extended to the service sector.

Group dividend facility under Section 59AA/59B to facilitate formation of large entities should be reinstated Synchronisation of Sales tax rates and policies need to be harmonised across all jurisdiction and sectors and should be closely aligned with the regional benchmark of 12pc sales tax rate.

Pending tax refund should be cleared within next six months in an orderly manner. All subsequent tax refunds should be cleared within 45 days.

Resume the Zero Rating facility for the dairy sector Local supply of medicines/drugs should be classified under Zero-rating, so that the pharma industry, whose selling prices are regulated by the government, may claim input tax credits

The Federal Excise Duty should be decreased from 11.5pc to 8.5pc, and eliminated gradually.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, April 23rd, 2018