LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to review SRO 1125(I)/2011 as it has pushed the registered suppliers of packaging material to the wall because manufacturers now has started to make their purchases from unregistered suppliers or from other countries.
In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad and Vice President Nasir Saeed said that this will have far reaching consequences for the packaging industry established in the country.
The LCCI office-bearers said that most of the said packaging industries are supplying packing material to the exporters and are duly registered for sales tax. They said that the denial of input tax/refund to exporters will encourage them to make purchases from un-registered persons so that only 1% tax is required to be withheld, instead of making purchases from said registered manufacturers/suppliers who will charge sales tax @ 17%. They said that the business of registered manufacturers/suppliers of packaging material will, therefore, come to a standstill and they will be forced either to close down or to de-register themselves and go in the un-organized sector.
They said that the problem will be aggravated in view of the fact that most of the large exporters/export houses will obtain DTRE for import or local purchase of various items including packing material. They will import packing material free of customs duty and sales tax under the said scheme and there will be no need for them to make purchases either from registered suppliers or from un-registered suppliers. They said that this will cause loss of local economic activity resulting in huge revenue loss to the national exchequer.
