Updates Regarding Business!
Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Faisal Sabzwari distributed regularization orders among contract employees of Karachi Port Trust (KPT) under Prime Minister’s assistance package 2023 in a ceremony in Karachi today.
Addressing on the occasion, he said employees regularized today have long been associated with the organization.
Syed Faisal Sabzwari said he has worked with sincerity along with administration for the development and improvement of the organization.
Source: Radio Pakistan
During the drive against the registered persons involved in tax fraud by claiming/adjusting inadmissible/illegal input tax on the strength of fake/flying invoices, the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (IR) Lahore detected a tax fraud committed by M/s Saeed and Co.
Scrutiny of data for the tax period from July 2019 to December 2022 revealed that M/s Saeed and Co. was involved in claiming inadmissible input tax credit by way of showing debit and credit notes in Annexure-I of the sales tax return without making any purchase and creating inadmissible input tax in its sales tax returns.
It issued fake sales tax invoices on the strength of that inadmissible input tax to various registered persons enabling them to claim input tax credits.
The Directorate issued notices under section 38 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 to buyers of M/s Saeed and Co. who were found fake/dummies and being used for layering of fake/inadmissible input tax. The fraudsters used these fake/dummy units to issue further fake sale tax invoices to registered persons/beneficiaries. The fraudsters managed to create fake input tax through M/s Saeed and Co. and other fake/dummy units.
Then the Directorate issued notices to the end beneficiaries who have claimed/adjusted inadmissible/fake input tax on the strength of fake/flying invoices.
In response to the said notice, one of the beneficiaries has deposited the evaded amount of sales tax Rs. 96,908,516, default surcharge Rs. 10,092,565, and penalty Rs. 4,845,426 on account of inadmissible input tax against fake/flying invoices of M/s Aazan Enterprises, Al-JunaidImpex, and China Impex – all fake/dummy units.
The Federal Board of Revenue is committed to eradicating the use of fake/flying invoices in order to create equal opportunities for businesses to grow under perfect competition and contribute to national economic growth and development.
Source: Pro Pakistani
The sale and purchase of sacrificial animals all over the country's temporary cattle markets has reached at its climax.
People are busy in arranging of animals to fulfill their religious obligation following Sunnah of Hazrat Ibrahim and Hazrat Ismael AS.
However, they are complaining for high rates of animals due to inflationary pressure.
Those who have purchased their animals for Eid are busy in taking care of them.
Meanwhile, administration of districts is putting its best effort to ensure removal of illegal mandis in different cities.
Source: Radio Pakistan
Five judges of Balochistan High Court were sworn-in in Quetta on Tuesday.
Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan administered the oath to them.
The sworn-in Judges inlcude Justice Iqbal Ahmed Kasi, Justice Shaukat Ali Rukhshani, Justice Gul Hasan Tareen, Justice Mohammad Amir Nawaz Rana and Justice Sardar Ahmed Halimi.
After induction of these judges the total strengthen of permanent judges in Balochistan High Court has risen to thirteen.
Source: Radio Pakistan
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will charge a 15 percent sales tax on Electric Power Transmission Services provided within the territorial jurisdiction of Islamabad Captial Territory (ICT) from July 1, 2023.
According to the Finance Act 2023, the government has made amendments to the Islamabad Capital Territory (Tax on Services) Ordinance, 2001.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will charge a 15 percent sales tax on services provided or rendered by hotels, motels, guest houses, farmhouses, marriage halls, lawns, clubs, and caterers within the Islamabad Captial Territory (ICT) from July 1, 2023.
5 percent sales tax would be applicable where payment against services is received through debit or credit cards, mobile wallets, or QR scanning subject to the condition that no input tax adjustment or refund shall be admissible. This is applicable on services provided by restaurants including cafes, food (including ice cream) parlors, coffee houses coffee shops, deras, food huts, eateries, resorts, and similar cooked, prepared or ready-to-eat food service outlets etc.
15 percent sales tax would be applicable where payment is received in cash on services provided by restaurants including cafes, food (including ice cream) parlors, coffee houses coffee shops, deras, food huts, eateries, resorts and similar cooked, prepared or ready-to-eat food service outlets etc.
15 percent sales tax would be applicable on the IT services and IT-enabled services.
Explanation
The “IT services” include but not limited to software development, software maintenance, system integration, web design, web development, web hosting, and network design; and the “IT enabled services” include but not limited to inbound or outbound call centers, medical transcription, remote monitoring, graphics design, accounting services, human resources (HR) services, telemedicine centers, data entry operations, cloud computing services, data storage services, locally television programs, and insurance claims processing.
Source: Pro Pakistani
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved Rs. 4 billion in Technical Supplementary grants for markup payment of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar chaired the meeting of ECC today.
Sources said that Aviation Division requested the ECC to release pending claims of PIAC amounting to Rs. 22.94 billion on account of markup upto June 2023 enabling it to overcome its cash flow issues.
It is submitted that a meeting was held in PM’s office on December 30, 2017, where it was decided that markup on the debt of PIA would be picked up by GoP for five years (From July 2018 to June 2023) and its payment would be made directly to the lenders.
Consequently, payments of markup on GoP guarantee loans of PIA have been made to the lenders from July 2018 till November 2022.
Ministry of Finance allocated Rs. 15 billion during the financial year 2022-23 against the demand of Rs. 31.5 billion out of which Rs. 14.689 billion was utilized up to November 2022. The markup from December 2022 to June 2023 amounting to Rs. 23.255 have been sent to the finance division for the release of additional funds of Rs. 22.94 billion however no funds so far have been released.
It is reiterated that the non-release of additional markup payment supports has exacerbated the already persistent cash flow problems of PIA. Until now, PIA had been with severe difficulty making markup payments from its available operations cash flows however it has not reached a point where it is unable to make any further payments.
The diversion of operational cash flows to markup payments has led to the delay in payments due in relation to PIA’s core operational obligations. This includes payment in relation to various services without which flight operations are not possible such as payments in relation to the lease of aircraft and airport services.
It may be mentioned that out of PIA’s fleet of 31 aircraft, 13 aircraft have been acquired on lease. Some of the most significant recent instances and notices received by PIA in this regard.
Malaysia detained one of PIA’s aircraft which was later released under court order, similarly, another lessor filed a lawsuit for non-payment in a US court.
Some other lessors including IATA have issued warning for payment of its outstanding dues of $2.8 million which was also made on June 23, 2034, with great difficulty so the aviation division told the ECC that it will not be possible for PIA to continue its operations if markup amounting of Rs. 22.9 billion is not immediately released.
Source: Pro Pakistani