Daily Times

Concerns have been made by the FPCCI’s President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh about the lack of facilitation and a fair environment for industrial raw material distributors and manufacturers. Khan delivered his remarks at Federation House to members of PCDMA, an association of large-scale merchants. Chemical merchants should be shifted to the Normal Tax Regime (NTR) rather than the Minimum Tax Regime (MTR) for the last two years, according to Mr. Irfan Iqbal Sheikh. When it was withdrawn from the Final Tax Regime (FTR). In addition, he suggested that the condition of customer CNIC copy be excused and the turnover tax be reduced from its present level of 1.25 percent to 1.0 percent immediately in order to combat the threat of flying invoices in the industry. In the future, he said, it should be gradually reduced to 0.5 percent.

Export-oriented businesses rely on middlemen to help them meet consignment deadlines, while new industries establishing themselves and precious foreign exchange reserves being preserved through import substitution benefit from easier access to traders and middlemen in the industrial raw material supply chain.

Rather than overlooking the needs of industrial raw material merchants, Mr. Irfan Iqbal Sheikh asserted that the state’s institutions should do more to assist them than it does luxury goods importers, such as those importing cars, cell phones, designer apparel, and high-end food items. According to the Chairman of the Pakistan Chemical & Dyes Merchants Association (PCDMA), the application of a 4.5 percent Withholding Tax (WHT) on the sales by middlemen in the supply chain who buy from commercial importers is counterproductive because it raises costs and squeezes profit margins even harder. As a result, the government’s aim of creating a strong, efficient, and reliable supply chain for the industries is seriously hampered.