FAISALABAD City News

APTPMA closes business today against ST collection
Says it is not possible to provide names, addresses
of parties supplying coarse cloth for processing
From Our Correspondent
FAISALABAD: The All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA) Monday decided to close down their businesses from May 26 (Tuesday) against collection of Sales Tax under Section 40 and 38-A of the Sales Tax Act.
In a meeting held under APTPMA chairman Sheikh Khalid Habib, the government was urged that Region Tax Office should not forcibly collect Sales Tax from their member processing units and to remove tax officials posted at processing units.
The meeting was of the view that they were ready to pay due ST but it was not possible for them to provide names and addresses of the parties which supply their coarse cloth for processing.
The meeting also decided to stage protest rallies throughout Faisalabad Region against this arbitrary collection of sales tax.
They said during the last protest rally, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had appointed lawmaker Pervaiz Malik to sort out problems of processing units but nothing was materialized so far.
Hence, they are constrained to shut down their factories till acceptance of their demands.
Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner (headquarters) of Faisalabad Regional Tax Office Sajjad Amjad told this correspondent that the department would not yield to any pressure but was ready to redress the genuine problems of the APTPMA members but they have to supply complete details of the proceeds with complete names and addresses of parties which were supplying them coarse cloth for processing.
It is mandatory for the processing factories to supply the information to RTO under Section 40 and 38-A of the ST but majority of them are hesitating to provide this data to the Tax Office, he said.
He refuted charges that ST Returns were being secured from Textile Processing Units and the Sales Tax Staff has been posted at all processing factories to pressurize them but it has been done as per usual practice to stop the tax evasion, he said.
The AC said more than half of the processing mill owners assured the authorities that they would not join the strike.