Business community demands govt’s focus on marble sector

In order to optimise the tax collection and broaden the tax base, the government should re-introduce the fixed tax regime for the marble industry on the pattern of the tier-II retailers who pay sales tax through electricity bills, suggested Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Muhammad Shakeel Munir.

In a statement on Saturday, he said that effective from June 2016, the marble industry was paying a fixed sales tax at Rs1.25 on per unit of electricity consumed as a final discharge of its net sales tax liability to the extent of marble and granite manufacturing, grinding and polishing process.

“However, the Finance Act 2020 abolished this regime and the marble industry is now subject to the normal sales tax at 17% due to which, the growth and expansion of this industry is suffering,” he said. “The government should re-introduce the fixed tax regime for the marble industry in the next budget which will pave the way for its better growth and increase the overall tax collection from this sector as people would willingly pay the fixed tax.”

Munir said that according to a research study, Pakistan possessed over 292 billion tons of marble reserves and 99% of them existed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) region. He added that Buner, Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Mansehra, Malakand and Chitral districts were rich in marble.

According to him, substantial investment was required for developing a mine as per the international standards. He emphasised upon the government to devise a mechanism to provide financial support to the investors of the marble industry to enable them to import the required equipment and machinery for producing value-added marble products and boosting exports.

The ICCI president lamented that roads in the marble extraction areas were not properly developed and the necessary infrastructure such as electricity, colonies for the workers and transportation arrangements was insufficient.

“Due to these problems, the transportation costs of blocks from quarries to processing units increases the production cost considerably which affects the market trends,” he said. “The government should look into the issues of the marble industry and address them so that this industry can grow rapidly and play a more effective role in the economic development of the country.”

ICCI Senior Vice President Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh and Vice President Muhammad Faheem Khan said that lack of research and development culture in the mining sector was another major problem of this sector.

They urged the government to cooperate in setting up research and development facilities for the marble industry and argued that they would go a long way in promoting this important industry and increase its contribution in the development of the national economy.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2022.

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