The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, led by Chairman Committee, Senator Saleem Mandviwala, conducted a comprehensive review of the proposed changes in the first schedule to the Customs Act, 1969 (Pakistan Customs Tariff). The meeting took place on Wednesday at the Parliament House, where senior officials from the National Tariff Commission (NTC), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and Ministry of Commerce presented their insights regarding the rationale behind the proposed amendments. During the meeting, a clause-by-clause review of the proposals and changes in customs duties for various items and raw materials was conducted. Chairman Senator Saleem Mandviwala emphasized the importance of ensuring that any relief or concessions provided to businesses in terms of duties should be passed on to the customers through a decrease in prices. He also stressed the need for a complete picture to be presented regarding the sales tax and income tax concession, if any extended to these businesses. Expressing his views on regulatory duties, Senator Mandviwala highlighted that they should not be utilized as a revenue-generating measure. Instead, their purpose should be to promote fair trade practices and protect domestic industries. Representatives of Packaged Juices industry requested the committee to abolish the 10% excize duty. Government had increased the excise duty last year which has not resulted in any revenue gain for the government. It has also caused substantial decrease in sale. representatives of Pakistan Association of Large steel producers briefed the committee about problems being faced by Steel Industry in Pakistan. They were of the view that supply of local steel scrap should be exempted from sales tax under section 13 of the sales tax act 1990. They also suggested that income tax withholding rate on scrap supplies to be reduced to 0.25% under section 153 of the income tax ordinance. Representatives of APTMA briefed the committee about the problems faced by the textile industry in Pakistan. They informed that in current budget there is no subsidy in electricity and gas for the textile industry which will create problems for the industry. Government must amend the budgetary proposals and provide much needed relief to the textile industry as 20 million human resource is attached with Textile industry. They said that already 50% of textile units in punjab have shutdown due to increase in cost of production. If the subsidy is not provided the 25% more units will shutdown. They suggested that according to the previous year budget subsidy on electricity and gas may please be extended to textile industry for its survival. The meeting was attended by Senator Saadia Abbasi, Senator Faisal Saleem Rehman, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Senator Imamuddin Shouqeen, along with officials from the NTC, FBR, and Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce. Representatives of various industries like textile, steel, juices and food also attended.
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