PESHAWAR: After increasing practice of clearing imported goods in Karachi to avoid infrastructure development cess (IDC), the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to take action against the industrial units, which are involved in this exercise.
This was decided in a high-level meeting, held at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. Principal secretary to the chief minister Muhammad Israr Khan, who also holds the charge of the office of the Secretary Excise and Taxation Department and Excise and Taxation Director General Nasir Khan and other Customs officers also attended the meeting.
The meeting was told that around 20 industrial units are evading one per cent cess by clearing their goods in Karachi and about Rs21 billion Peshawar-bound goods had been cleared in Karachi during the last two months of the current financial year 2016-17. It cost Rs820 million to the federal government and Rs30 million to the provincial exchequer.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government approved rules in 2014 under the Finance Act to impose IDC and set a collection target of Rs1 billion for the financial year 2015-16, which it had to revise and set at Rs200 million.
