ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Computer Association (PCA) has submitted tax policy proposals and a datasheet to the government for incorporating these in the upcoming budget so that the IT sector could further develop in the country.
The proposals focus on the withdrawal of some taxes and imposition of fixed duties/taxes on the IT products so that legal imports of these products could be encouraged, and the industry was provided with a level-playing field.
A comprehensive datasheet accompanies the proposals, which covers almost all areas of the IT products.
The sheet proposes fixed charges to be applied on respective IT products to determine yearly, quarterly and monthly estimate of the cost these will yield.
The sheet also shows that the fixed duties, if applied on each item, will net the government a revenue collection of more than Rs5 billion In addition, the cost of the smuggled IT products as against the documented imports shows a huge anomaly; thereby not only hampering the IT business and causing losses to the IT traders but also depriving the FBR of revenue from the sale of genuine IT products.
Apart from the datasheet, the PCA has also suggested proposals for other important issues, including the Import Trade Price (ITP), undocumented IT Sector, PTA Type Proposal, increase in the GST registration charges and revision of the Valuation of Guidelines for the IT imports.
With regard to the ITP, the PCA suggests changes to the tax regime by fixing ITP on the lower side, at its import stage, which will increase number of legitimate importers and discourage undocumented persons in the market by enticing them to join the tax net.
PCA says the computer sector is paying a wide range of taxes to ensure documented imports, and asserts that there is a need to tackle the menace of smuggling in the country on a priority basis.
Another issue of concern for the PCA stakeholders involves the production of PTA Type Approval Certificate for clearance by the government on every networking product.
Consequently, most of the networking products are now finding their way to the country through illegal means, causing the loss of revenue to the government. The PCA has demanded the pre-condition for the certificate be dropped.
