ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to establish electronic data interfaces with different countries including the United Arab Emirates, European states, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Singapore to curb under-invoicing and tax evasion, officials said on Thursday.
The government has been struggling to combat incorrect declaration and under-assessment of goods by importers to evade customs duty. Importers usually change invoices in the connivance with government officials to pay minimal taxes while clearing their consignments from ports.
“The under-invoicing and tax evasion by importers run into millions of rupees annually and we want to curb it by coordinating other countries,” Dr. Hamid Ateeq Sarwar, Member Inland Revenue Policy at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), told Arab News.
Elaborating the plan, he said the electronic data interface with Afghanistan will be established by February this year and the project will then be extended to other countries as well in different phases.
“We don’t expect much to gain from Afghanistan as they don’t have the capacity to handle the imports and exports, but at least we will be able to find difference in invoices of importers if any of them attempts to alter them,” he said.
Sarwar said the FBR was planning to complete the project with the UAE, European countries and Singapore by June this year. “Once we are connected with the electronic data interface of a country, it will be almost impossible for importers to alter their invoices,” he said.
The cash-strapped South Asian nation has been struggling to increase its tax revenues by combating smuggling and under-invoicing by importers.
The country has suffered an economic loss of around $11 billion in terms of customs duties and withholding tax during 1972 to 2013 as the under-invoicing was recorded to be around $92.7 billion during the period, according to Mukarram Jah Ansari who is director-general valuation at the FBR.
Pakistan has been working closely with the World Customs Organization, an intergovernmental body headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, to sign agreements with other countries for electronic data interchange.
“We have been receiving very encouraging response from all the countries … numerous international organizations have been helping us to reform our tax system,” Sarwar said. “In today’s age, all the countries have open economies and it is in their interest as well to sign such mutual pacts.”
On the other hand, importers and businessmen have welcomed the move, hoping it will help discourage smuggling of the goods and boost genuine imports and business in the country.
“Once the smuggling and under-invoicing of the imported goods is stopped effectively, we will witness a competition among genuine importers which will boost the economy and increase revenue collection,” Anjum Nisar, chairman Pakistan Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Importers’ Association, told Arab News.
Pakistan to coordinate with UAE, Europe to curb under-invoicing, tax evasion
https://arab.news/6cxbs
Pakistan to coordinate with UAE, Europe to curb under-invoicing, tax evasion
- The project will make it ‘almost impossible’ for importers to alter invoices, say FBR officials
- Importers welcome the move, saying it will boost economy and increase tax collection
Sindh assembly passes resolution rejecting move to separate Karachi
- Chief Minister Shah cites constitutional safeguards against altering provincial boundaries
- Calls to separate Karachi intensified amid governance concerns after a mall fire last month
ISLAMABAD: The provincial assembly of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Saturday passed a resolution rejecting any move to separate Karachi, declaring its territorial integrity “non-negotiable” amid political calls to carve the city out as a separate administrative unit.
The resolution comes after fresh demands by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and other voices to grant Karachi provincial or federal status following governance challenges highlighted by the deadly Gul Plaza fire earlier this year that killed 80 people.
Karachi, Pakistan’s largest and most densely populated city, is the country’s main commercial hub and contributes a significant share to the national economy.
Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah tabled the resolution in the assembly, condemning what he described as “divisive statements” about breaking up Sindh or detaching Karachi.
“The province that played a foundational role in the creation of Pakistan cannot allow the fragmentation of its own historic homeland,” Shah told lawmakers, adding that any attempt to divide Sindh or separate Karachi was contrary to the constitution and democratic norms.
Citing Article 239 of Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution, which requires the consent of not less than two-thirds of a provincial assembly to alter provincial boundaries, Shah said any such move could not proceed without the assembly’s approval.
“If any such move is attempted, it is this Assembly — by a two-thirds majority — that will decide,” he said.
The resolution reaffirmed that Karachi would “forever remain” an integral part of Sindh and directed the provincial government to forward the motion to the president, prime minister and parliamentary leadership for record.
Shah said the resolution was not aimed at anyone but referred to the shifting stance of MQM in the debate while warning that opposing the resolution would amount to supporting the division of Sindh.
The party has been a major political force in Karachi with a significant vote bank in the city and has frequently criticized Shah’s provincial administration over its governance of Pakistan’s largest metropolis.
Taha Ahmed Khan, a senior MQM leader, acknowledged that his party had “presented its demand openly on television channels with clear and logical arguments” to separate Karachi from Sindh.
“It is a purely constitutional debate,” he told Arab News by phone. “We are aware that the Pakistan Peoples Party, which rules the province, holds a two-thirds majority and that a new province cannot be created at this stage. But that does not mean new provinces can never be formed.”
Calls to alter Karachi’s status have periodically surfaced amid longstanding complaints over governance, infrastructure and administrative control in the megacity, though no formal proposal to redraw provincial boundaries has been introduced at the federal level.
