The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has brought back edible oil, packing material and plastic raw material imported by commercial importers under the full and final tax regime. According to the comments of Tola Associates on the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 issued here on Thursday, the section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 provides that the tax required to be collected from a person under section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 shall be minimum tax for a tax year on the import of edible oil; packing material and plastic raw material imported by an industrial undertaking falling under PCT headings 39.01 to 39.12.

Finance Act 2018 made addition in the list such that tax required to be deducted under section 148 on import of goods where goods are sold in the same condition as they were when imported; shall also be minimum tax, i.e. tax deducted at import stage of commercial importers were brought under normal tax regime from fixed tax regime. The bill proposes to reverse the above amendment. The proposal is introduced to address issues of commercial importers who were under threat of audits consequent to amendment vide FA 2018.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019