Centre, Sindh reach agreement

KARACHI: In a dramatic late night development, the Centre and the Sindh government reached an agreement on the Value Added Tax on Friday.

According to a participant of a meeting where the agreement was reached, the Centre will collect tax on four services and the Sindh government will collect tax on all other services. The meeting lasted till about 10pm on Friday night.

The four services for the Centre include financial services, advertising, construction and franchising. Two of the major services,  telecommunications and travel, have been left to the Sindh government to tax.

According to the source, Sindh expects to collect Rs 22-23 billion and expects to give Rs2-3 billion to the Centre under this arrangement. Details of the agreement will be incorporated into the provincial bill on Saturday and the bill is expected to be placed before the provincial assembly on Monday.

After this agreement no further differences remain between the Centre and Sindh government on the administration of the VAT, source claimed.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2010.