ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin on Wednesday urged the provinces to work together for resolving pending taxation matters.

       The direction came during the first meeting of the National Tax Council (NTC) at the Finance Division. The meeting was attended by Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, Khyber Pakht-unkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra, and Balochistan Finance Minister Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi.

       Sindh was represented by provincial secretary finance and chairman Sindh Board of Revenue. Federal finance secretary, chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and other senior officials also participated in the meeting.

       An official announcement said Mr Tarin urged the participants to work together on the pending taxation matters so that an arrangement relating to harmonisation of General Sales Tax among the provinces and the federal government could be finalised at the earliest.

       Harmonisation involves an agreement among the federal government and the provinces to apply the same definitions, principles and rates for GST on goods and services. This means that federal and provincial government would revise legislation and regulations to apply the same definitions of economic activities subject to GST on goods and services, levy of GST based on the place of sale/consumption rather than the firm’s headquarters, and preferably, but not necessarily, standardise their tax rates.

       Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2021