KARACHI: The Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments have decided to take a joint stand in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) against increase in the withholding tax rates on registration of motor vehicles by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Secretary Excise and Taxation KP Raheel Siddiqui recently visited Karachi and discussed matters relating to provincial taxes mainly motor registration, property tax, infrastructure cess and excise with Sindh Secretary Excise and Taxation Abdul Majeed Pathan.

Pathan informed his KP counterpart that his province had filed a petition with the CCI contesting the higher tax rates and also took steps to counter the FBR move.

The KP secretary urged the FBR to withdraw the show-cause notice and refund the amount deducted from the KP treasury.

The two secretaries noted that both Sindh and KP were on the same page regarding tax dispute with the FBR. The KP secretary also visited the local computerised tax system adopted to handle vast tax network for recovery of motor vehicle tax, property tax and professional tax.

He said that the KP was advance in recovery of property tax and maintained an up-to-date data of property units as a result of a survey carried only three years ago.

This is in contrast with the property tax situation in Sindh which has not been able to conduct a survey for over 10 years.

The KP secretary excise also KP government was also considering introducing infrastructure cess as there was an extensive goods movement from other provinces to Peshawar and onward to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014