FBR reaches out to Sindh govt over tax collection dispute

KARACHI: A meeting between the Federal Board of revenue (FBR) and Excise Department officials will be held today as disputes over tax collection increase between the Sindh government and the federation.

On Wednesday, the Sindh government had announced to officially halt tax collections for the Centre, a day after Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah had said that the province had conveyed the message to the federal government in this regard.

The Sindh Minister for for excise and taxation Mukesh Chawla said that the provincial government has stopped collecting withholding tax for two days under a decision taken by the Sindh Cabinet.

"FBR officials have contacted us [in this regard], we stand by our position," he asserted.

Chawla had earlier said that the federal government "should now make the mechanism for collecting the withholding tax by itself".

Centre failed to help Sindh: CM Shah

A day before yesterday, Shah had announced that the provincial government would not collect advance income tax on behalf of the federal government.

According to a report by The News, Shah had urged the federal government to take better care of citizens as the public would no longer tolerate how important national issues were being handled by the Centre.

Also read: Sindh government stops collection of withholding tax for Centre

In his address to the Sindh Assembly, Shah was of the view that the federal government had handled the issues of sugar, flour, petrol and the recent crisis of locusts to the utter disadvantage of the people of the country.

He had informed the House that the federal government had a separate ministry for national food security and research, and another dedicated agency for plants that must deal with the locust emergency, but these institutions were yet to come into action against the emerging problem threatening the food security of Pakistan.

He had said the federal authorities had not fulfilled their obligations regarding aerial spray to be conducted against the locust swarms in the province. He added that the Centre had also not lived up to its commitment to provide aircraft for conducting aerial spray against locusts in Sindh.

The chief minister had maintained that his government had been compelled to take such a decision after the federal government unilaterally took an adverse decision regarding the levy of the income tax.