June 22, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 06, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 21: Stakeholders of steel industry on Thursday agreed that draft notification about sales tax rate and mechanism will be issued after evolving a consensus.

This was decided in a meeting of the stakeholders of steel industry at the Engineering Development Board (EDB) to evolve a formula for levy of sales tax on different sub-sectors of steel industry for the budget 2007-08, which was agreed with the CBR by the Steel Melters and Re-rollers Association.

An official announcement issued after the meeting said it was agreed that the draft notification about sales tax rate and proposed mechanism may be seen and deliberated before it is issued.

Some of the participants were of the view that there should be a level-playing field for all sub-sectors with fixed sales tax at input level.

The meeting also noted that price reduction is directly related with rate of sales tax.

The meeting was called on the instructions of Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives Jahangir Khan Tareen, who had instructed the EDB on Tuesday to start immediate negotiations with stakeholders to solve the issue.