KARACHI, June 14: The Pakistan Biscuit and Confectionery Manufacturers Association (PBCMA) has rejected the new budget proposal to levy sales tax on retail price at manufacturing stage.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, PBCMA Chairman Maqsood Ismail said that the proposal would reverse the trend of documentation. He said that during the last five years the government and the organized sector had worked hard to register more and more companies under the sales tax act and as a result of this the government was now generating about 50 to 80 per cent of sales tax from registered distributors.

He further said that this did not only encourage documentation but also help to check smuggling and generate more revenue for the government.

However, he said that the budget proposal would discriminate local manufacturers as they would be paying higher amount of sales tax against imported goods, which have now been exempted from printing retail tax and will be paying sales tax of C&F value at the import stage. He said that under the higher sales tax regime against the imported goods at lower ST bracket, the local production of biscuits and confectionery would fall sharply.