RGST to further hike prices of over 550 items
By Sohail Afzal
KARACHI: The imposition of Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) will further hike the prices of more than 550 items. According to sources, after the imposition of RGST, hundreds of things, which remained exempted from the sales tax so far, will come under the tax net.
The products and commodities which will come under the tax net include bread, shir mal, stationery items such as notebooks, pens, pencils, sharpeners etc, packed milk, yogurt, cream, butter, packed poultry products, poultry by-products such as chicken nuggets, kabab etc, medical testing kit, homeopathic medicines, CNG kit, CNG cylinder, software, construction machinery and generators etc.
The sources said that under the RGST, the government from January 1, 2011 will include more than 550 items in the tax net, due to which 15 percent sales tax would be imposed on these items.
The sources further said that the concessions given to different sectors by the government from time to time would also be withdrawn under the RGST. The 50-bed hospitals which were given concession in sales tax, don’t enjoy this concession anymore.
Similarly, the poultry sector was also given concession in sales tax on value addition. Due to this concession many companies came forward in this sector in recent past and they introduced packed poultry products like kabab nuggets, frozen chicken etc, but now they will also come under the tax net. Likewise, concession given to diary sector has also been withdrawn.
Different gadgets and instruments like camera trolleys, camera dollies, sound recording channel mixers, cinema speaker sound systems, audio processors, and VTS, which earlier enjoyed exemptions, have been brought under the tax net.
The energy savers, which were so far kept out of the tax net to facilitate its enhanced use, have now been taxed.The exemptions given to export processing zones to import machinery have also been withdrawn.
Source: The News
Date:11/27/2010
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