The federal government is trying to get illegal amendments in the Sales Tax Act approved by the assembly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI) Chairman standing committee on Sales Tax Zahidullah Shinwari said on Sunday.
He termed the amendments to enlist national tax number certificate or national identity card number on the invoice for selling and buying under the new proposed sales tax return Act 1990 as illegal.
He said in order to make this obligatory on all kinds of transactions, FBR had brought illegal changes to the sales tax act. He said this would not only affect the registered firms but would also render it difficult to work on the newly proposed sales tax return on the non-registered businesses in the region.
He said that the business community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was also engaged in business related activities with traders from tribal areas, including FATA, where there were no ID cards, demanding an explanation of how it would be possible to enlist the suppliers’ ID card numbers in these cases. Zahidullah Shinwari further said it had not been clarified that how the transactions of July and August would be recorded. He said the FBR had already made an attempt to pass its ‘illegal’ amendments in the sales tax return from the national assembly on four occasions but had failed.
The KPCCI representative further informed that the FBR had been asked to bring changes in the proposed sales tax return in consultation with the business community of the region.