ISLAMABAD, June 27: CBR chairman Abdullah Yousuf said on Wednesday commercial importers will pay 2 per cent sales tax on value addition as their final liability.

He stated this in a meeting with a delegation of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) led by its former president Tariq Sayeed.

An official announcement issued here after the meeting said that the chairman also agreed that the commercial importers will be exempted from filing monthly sales tax returns.

The delegation raised a range of issues during the meeting. It informed the chairman that the procedure for sales tax had been made cumbersome for commercial importers as the system of value addition at customs stage was done away with and now they were required to pay tax on value addition monthly with their sales tax returns while adjusting 90 per cent of the output tax from input tax, maintain records and were subject to audit.

The FPCCI also pointed out that where input tax on raw material was 20 per cent and the final product was subject to 15 per cent sales tax, the capping of 90 per cent adjustment will create problems as the manufacturers will have to wait for refunds. It recommended that the capping of 90pc input tax adjustment may be withdrawn.

In this regard, sectoral studies on value addition were provided to the CBR chairman who assured to provide relief and issue notification in this regard before July 1, added the announcement.