July 22, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1424

KARACHI, July 21: The Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) has called its general body meeting on Wednesday in Islamabad to discuss future strategy.

In a statement it said that the CBR continues to adopt delaying tactics in releasing sales tax refunds for 2002-03.

It said the government had raised sales tax on imported edible oil from 15 to 20 per cent besides levying 15 per cent sales tax on vegetable ghee in 2003-2004 budget. Federal Finance Minister at that time had said that the raise in taxes and duties would increase prices by one to two per cent, and that mill owners would be able to get the sales tax refund.

Mill owners had already filed the GST claims. In fact the sale price by all the member units was fixed after adjustment of sales tax refund expected from the government as announced by the finance minister.

PVMA had taken up all these issues through a communique addressed to Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on July 18.

Ghee makers informed the minister that they had also held a meeting with Member Sales Tax to settle the issue. The CBR had insisted that the output tax in any case should be higher by 20 per cent than input sales tax which is an unjustified demand as the sales tax on major inputs is 20 per cent and GST 15 per cent. PVMA feels that the difference of input tax and the GST at the stage of sale of ghee clearly establishes the refund of the sales tax which unfortunately is being denied by the CBR without any legitimate ground.

In another meeting held on July 14 with Member Sales Tax, PVMA suggested a benchmark of a minimum 15 per cent value addition in the input purchase price for calculation of the GST and also requested to set up a committee comprising CBR officials and PVMA members to sort out the issues but the proposal was not positively responded.

PVMA had sought a meeting with finance minister and CBR chairman to resolve the issues.

PVMA urged the government to provide a level playing field to both the importers of RBD palm oil and crude palm and save the industries using RBD palm oil from financial losses.