KARACHI: All-Pakistan Security Agencies Association (APSAA) Chairman Col (r) Tauqeerul Islam and Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Senior Vice President Muffasar A Malik have urged Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to withdraw GST imposed on security services in the last budget.
Addressing a joint press conference at KCCI, they said that the tax was imposed in the last provincial budget at the rate of 10 percent. The issue was taken up with Sindh Chief Minister and Sindh Revenue Board (SRB), who promised that either it would be abolished or reduced in the next provincial budget (2014-15).
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They said that the tax was imposed on clients and security agencies were made responsible to collect it from its customers and deposit it with the tax collecting authority, otherwise they were to face fine and license cancellation. They said that the clients were not ready to pay the tax and since its imposition the security agencies were depositing the tax from their own resources and sustaining the burden.
To a question, Tauqeer Islam said that APSAA represented its members across the country and it had around 300 members of which 200 were in Sindh.
To another question, he explained that there are two types of security agencies working in the country one was register and member of APSAA and other non-registered. He informed that Sindh Home Secretary Dr Niaz Abbasi had initiated crackdown illegal companies whereas a similar crackdown was likely to be started in of Punjab as well whereas APSAA has also established a committee to effectively deal with these illegal businesses.
