Industry calls for easier rules as FBR urges export growth

According to Dawn, FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial urged exporters to widen the reach of Pakistani goods in overseas markets during a meeting with a delegation from the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry. The delegation raised concerns about complicated rules, difficulties with digital invoicing and a tax load falling on businesses that already comply. Langrial added that the authority planned talks with leading exporters shortly to examine those concerns and remove barriers to export growth.

Sheikh Umer Rehan, the Kati president, accepted that tax digitalisation is necessary, yet said industries face real hurdles in putting digital invoicing into practice and those hurdles need fixing. He asked the government for hands-on guidance, technical support and coordination mechanisms, and said greater tax transparency must not disrupt industrial or commercial activity. Rehan also argued that the tax base must widen to include every individual and business legally obliged to pay, so that compliant firms do not carry the load alone.

Rehan wanted authorities to locate untaxed sectors and apply tax laws uniformly across every segment. He also pointed to tax and duty problems affecting ghee and edible oil producers in the Korangi Industrial Area. He further asked the government to review unnecessary SROs and complex rules that raise production costs, arguing they should be simpler to help local industry compete.