Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Muhammad Shakeel Munir has said that the new fixed tax regime introduced by the FBR for the collection of sales tax with monthly electricity bills has created great concern among small traders.
He pointed out that the new tax rule would force small traders to pay minimum sales tax of Rs3,000 even if their electricity bill was less than Rs1,000.
He urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to revise the minimum slab of sales tax in consultation with the ICCI to save small traders from the unnecessary tax burden.
Munir said that the FBR was previously collecting sales tax in the monthly electricity bills at rates of 5% and 7.5% of the amount of the bill, however, through Circular No 09 of 2022-23, the tax authority decided to charge minimum tax on the monthly electricity bills of retailers at the rate of Rs3,000 for a monthly bill of up to Rs30,000.
This “is very discriminatory and will put extra tax burden on those small traders who are consuming less units of electricity”.
He asked the finance minister and FBR chairman to immediately engage the ICCI in consultation to define the minimum tax in proportion to the units of electricity consumed to make it affordable for the small traders.
Senior ICCI members regretted that the finance minister and FBR chairman had agreed to decide final slabs of the fixed tax regime in consultation with the trade bodies, but the tax slabs were finalised without taking them on board, which was contrary to the assurance given by the government.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 26th, 2022.
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